LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf. 




UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 



IN 



BIBLE STUDY 



AND 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHING 



REV. A? E. WINSHIP 



BOSTON 

W. A. WILDE & CO., PUBLISHERS 



2; BROMFIELD STREET 



1885 



Copyright, 
By A. E. Winship. 
1885. 



nrr 2 18RS 



WHOSE METHODS AND PRINCIPLES IN TRAINING AND TEACHING 
OUR CHILDREN IN THE HOME HAVE TAUGHT 
ME MORE PSYCHOLOGY THAN 
ALL MY BOOKS, 

I DEDICATE THIS FIRST WAIF FROM 
MY PEN. 



PREFACE. 



No departure from accepted metaphysical 
science is attempted. The aim is to apply the 
latest and best matured psychological principles 
to the training of the intellect, emotions, and 
will through a reverent study of the Scriptures ; 
to present methods of developing the mind at 
different periods ; to aid in securing attention ; 
to assist the memory and imagination ; to develop 
correct habits in thought and life ; to inspire 
an intelligent belief; to aid in making right 
choices. 

In a few instances the author has recast illus- 
trations that he had previously used editorially 
in the American Teacher, and would acknow- 
ledge his appreciation of, and indebtedness to, 
Sully's Sensations and Intuitions; Bain's Emo- 
tions and the Will ; Sully's Outlines of Psy- 
chology ; Hamilton's Metaphysics ; Bain's Senses 
and Intellect; Carpenter's Mental Physiology ; 
Bain's Mind and Body ; Calderwood's Relation 
of Mind to Body ; Jevons's Logic. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 



Prominence of Sunday-school Work — The Bible the Text-Book 
— What, How, and Why? — Popularizing Psychology — 
Mission of the Sunday-school — International Lessons — No 
Spirit of Criticism . . . . . . . 13 

CHAPTER I. 
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Aim 19 

Drawing Straight line — Smarting a Tune — Teacher's Respon- 
sibility — He needs the Key-note. 

Principles .20 



Knowledge of the Nature and Activity of the Child's Mind — 
What is to be attained — What is Mental Growth ? — Men- 
tal Development — Secular Education — Skill in Mechanics, 
Arts, etc. — Exercise of the Mind — Requirements of Chris- 
tian Living — Art and Philosophy — Thinking, Feeling, and 
Choosing — The Bee — Mental Development not necessarily 
a Blessing — Ingersoll — Moody — Character Development — 
Memory Age — Inquisitive Age — Analytical Age. 

Memory Age . . . . . . ..•■*. . .23 

Individual Texts — Care in Selection — Adaptation — Verses 
or Paragraphs — Point their own Lessons — Rhythmical — Se- 
cret Art — The Foundation — Repetition — Verbal Memory 
— Relish for memorizing Scripture — Too early Develop- 
ment — The Strawberry — Revision Committee — Texts ger- 
minate Thought — Drudgery — Teach the Truth — Self-evi- 
dent Application — Truth harnessed to Real Life — Life 
fashioned by Truth — Silk-worm — Ruskin's Texts. 

Inquisitive Age 28 

Circumstances and Associations — Geography — Cyclamen. 



7 



8 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



Analytical Age 30 

Grouping Texts — Mortified at Ignorance — Will not ask Ques- 
tions — Home — Mother — Sunday-school — Parental Author- 
ity — Biographical Grouping — Abraham — Temperance — 
General Outline — Fragrant Flowers — Weeds — Relation to 
Parents — To Children — To Friends — Enemies — Musical 
Development. 



CHAPTER II. 

ART OF THINKING. 

Introduction ... .45 

Experience — Thought in Bible Study — John Jasper — Loyalty 
to Intellectual Leader — Soldier — Contentment. 

I. Appreciation of Single Truths . . ... 48 



1. Of Things Present. 

2. Of Things Present through the Memories. 

3. Of Things Present through the Imagination. 

4. Of Things Absent. 



II. Discrimination to Note Differences . . .51 

1. Both Present. 

2. One Absent. 

III. Comparing Facts to Note Resemblances . . .55 

IV. Estimating Consequences ... . • • 57 

Theory in Practice — Patent Office — Physicians — Law- 
yers — Spider — Benefit of Truth — A Story — False 
and True Methods of Application — Rule. 

V. Inductive Reasoning . . '. . . . 61 

Definition — Examples — Rules. 

VI. Deductive Reasoning ....... 63 

The Art — Principles — Laws — Explanations — Each Law 
examined — Examples — Adaptation to Age. 



CHAPTER III. 

ATTENTION. 

Introduction . . . - 75 

Object of Mental Discipline — The Magnetic Teacher. 



CONTENTS. 



9 



I. Involuntary Attention ... . . . .76 

1. Non-attention. 

How not to attend — Humming-bird. 

2. External. 

a. Interested through Senses . . . .77 

Beaver. 

b. Through Senses, disinterestedly . . . • . 78 

Eagle — Sir William. Hamilton. 

c. Abstract Attention without Objects present . . 78 

d. Application to the Bible . . . . . .79 

1. Learning Texts because of Rhythm. 

2. Because of Truth we need. 

3. To learn Higher Truths. 

e. Results. 



Control of Circumstances — Men who influence 



us — Humming-bird. 
/. Methods . . . . . . . . . 81 

Appeal to the Eye and Ear - — Familiar in Un- 
familiar Surroundings — Question with Anima- '• 
tion — Vivid and Suggestive Questions—- 
Teacher must master the Class — Above the 
Self, above the Teacher to the Truth — Coleridge. 
g. Adaptation to Age . . . . . . . 84 

In Secular Schools — In Sunday-schools — Mel- 
ody — From Eight to Fifteen. 

3. Internal 84 

At Fifteen — Telescope — Mind educated. 

II. Voluntary Attention ... . ! . . 85 
III. Involuntary or Automatic Attention . . .85 

CHAPTER IV. 

ART OF REMEMBERING. 

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 91 

Methods of Learning to Remember . . . . . 91 
Definitely learned — Accurately learned — Firmly fixed in the 
Mind — Closely associated — Good Mental Attitude. 

Recalling Past Knowledge 94 



Involuntary. 

Panorama — Natural Elasticity — Ladies' Satchel — Science 
of not forgetting Association — Success in Sunday-school 
Teaching — Keen Attention — Frequent Repetition. 
Voluntary. 

Apply to the Bible — Teacher's Responsibility. 



10 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



Objects of Memorizing . . . . . . . . 99 

Words, i. e., texts, chapters, etc. 
Truth without words. 

Parables — Incidents — Miracles — Fish taking air. 
Truth without incident. 



CHAPTER V, 

PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 

Introduction 107 

Bad Habits destructive — Good Habits conserve Mental Energy 

— Righting Physical Deformities — Good Habits right Men- 
tal Deformities. 

Susceptibility of Mind 108 

Body Organism of Growth — Mind of Development. 

Habit and Will 108 

Conditions of Habit . 109 

Creates Brain Power — Ice-cutting. 

Method of Forming Habits. . .... 109 

Early Rising — Intemperance — Physical Raforms through 
Habit — Change of Attention Important — A Shrewd Mother 

— Current of Thought changed. 

Habitual Indifference 113 

Habit in Morality . . . . . . . . 114 

Habit in Religion 115 

Formation of Habit . :.. ...... : 116 

Definite Beginning — Frequent Repetition — Uniformity of 
Action. 



CHAPTER VI. 
USE OF IMAGINATION. 



Influence of Imagination 121 

Properly developed — Keeps from Mischief — Develops Vir- 
tue and Faith. 

Neglect of Imagination 123 

Development of Imagination 124 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE EMOTIONS. 

Classes of Feelings 131 

Influence of Emotions 132 



CONTENTS. 



I I 



Pleasurable Emotions 143 

Painful Emotions 134 

Unstimulated Emotions 135 

Excessive Emotional Natures . . . . -135 

Erratic Emotional Natures 135 

Development of Emotions 137 

Influence of the Word of God . . ...... 140 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 

Importance of Sympathy ....... 145 

Physical Sympathy . . . . . . . . 145 

Intellectual Sympathy 146 

Emotional Sympathy . . ... . . . 147 

Sympathy of Will . . .148 

Sympathy, Good and Bad ; . . . . 148 

Sympathy in Amusements . 148 

Sympathy in Church . -152 

Intellectuality 156 

Sense Influences 156 

Hindrances 156 

CHAPTER IX. 

PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 

Introduction .......... 163 

Belief . . 164 

Doubt 168 

Unbelief .......... 170 

Disbelief -171 

Despondency .171 

Despair . . .171 

Desperation 172 

Belief 174 

Credulity . -175 

Superstition 173 

Fanaticism . . . .... . . .175 

Expectant Attention 177 



12 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

Belief .. . .. . . . . . -. •. . 181 

Expectancy . . 181 

Reliance . * . . . * . . . . 181 

Faith . . 182 

Hope 182 

Peace 183 

Joy ... 183 

Character of Belief . . . . . . r . 184 

Varieties of Belief 186 

Adaptation of Belief . . . . . . . • . 186 

Confession . .188 

Faith in Action ... ... . . . 189 

Motives of Belief . . . . . . , . . 190 

Influence of the Bible 192 

CHAPTER X. 

ART OF CHOOSING. 
Introduction . .. . . '". . . . . .201 

Choice. 

Involuntary .......... 201 

Impulsive .......... 201 

Circumstantial 201 

Imitative 202 

Voluntary . .. . # c ." ' 204 

Deliberation 205 

Decision %HUSO . . . . . . . . 206 

Determination 208 

Resolution 209 

Major and Minor Choices 212 

Motives . . 214 

Wish -215 

Desire . . . , . . 215 

Covetousness «2I5 

Present ........... 216 

Future . 216 

To Please Self . . . . . . . . .218 

To Benefit Others . 218 

To Please God . . 219 

Special Divine Enlightenment . . . . . . 220 



INTRODUCTION. 



HE patriotic, social, and religious im- 
portance of the work attempted by 
the Christian men and women who 
distinguish themselves from other laborers in 
the Master's service by emphasizing Bible 
teaching in the Sunday-school, makes it certain 
that they will come into greater prominence as 
the fruit of their labor appears. 

The Bible is the text-book of all ages in 
morals and religion, and upon its truths rest 
the justice and mercy of human law ; the sta- 
bility of government, the permanency of com- 
mercial enterprise, the sanctity of the laws, the 
honor of man, the virtue of woman, the au- 
thority of the Sabbath, the precedent for Divine 
worship, the merit of the sacraments, the com- 
fort of the afflicted, the consolation of the 
bereaved, the hope, peace, and joy of mankind. 

13 



14 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

In teaching this book successfully we must 
know what to do, how to do it, and why. By a 
variety of means, through type and voice, we 
have been aided in teaching the individual 
lessons with a thoroughness that we have no 
disposition to criticise. But the great under- 
lying principles of mental action upon which 
success depends have not been emphasized, 
reliance having been placed upon the how 
rather than the why, upon the indications of 
immature experiment and experience rather 
than upon the philosophy which has command- 
ed the respect of the best intellect of all ages. 
Hence the demand for popularizing those fea- 
ures of psychology upon which ultimate success 
in Sunday-school teaching must depend. The 
child is not taught effectively until he thinks, 
feels, and wills habitually within the lines, 
under the laws, and from the inspiration which 
God has given in the Bible and conscience. 

If at times we shall seem to criticise existing 
plans and methods it will not be intentional. 
The uniformity of Bible study under the Inter- 
national system has been too great a blessing to 
the world to be lightly esteemed, and the 



INTRODUCTION. 1 5 

system is too dear to the hearts of the multi- 
tude who have profited by it to make it wise or 
courteous to comment with light and easy grace 
upon those defects that begin to appear as we 
reach a higher plane. We may well question 
whether we should have been qualified' to see 
the better way but for the light radiated by the 
International lessons. 

Those who indulge in panegyrics on the glori- 
ous old days when the Bible was committed to 
memory by the chapter, and call for a return to 
those favored methods, ought to know that the 
effectiveness of the present system is to that 
of former days as the dawn to the midnight, 
and if there is to be improvement it must be in 
advance and not in retreat. The purpose of 
this work is to present principles by which 
we should be guided, and indicate methods of 
application. It is not our aim to defend or 
antagonize existing systems. 

The leaders, official and otherwise, who have 
furnished the impetus and developed the wis- 
dom by which present attainments have been 
gained, and the teachers who have, through 
self-denial and devotion, made present success 



1 6 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

possible, have earned the respect and won the 
regard of all friends of humanity to such an 
extent that we have neither the intention nor 
the desire to utter one criticism upon their 
spirit or methods. Let no word of ours be so 
construed. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



" Our pleasures and our discontents 
Are rounds by which we may ascend." 

— Longfellow. 

" Each mind has its own method." — Emerson. 

•'Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." — 2 Pet, 3 : 18. 

" Nature never stands still, nor souls neither ; they ever go up or go 
down." — Julia C. R. Dorr. 

" Notwithstanding a faculty be born with us, there are several 
methods for cultivating and improving it." — Addison. 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



CHAPTER I. 

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 

MAN with an artistic instinct does not 
draw a straight line hesitatingly, for 
that makes it rough and uneven. 
Neither does he strike it off thoughtlessly at a 
single stroke, for that would curve or wave it. 
He makes two limiting points, then runs his eye 
from one to the other to fix the direction, and 
with a single movement makes a line as straight 
as an arrow. 

The more perfect one's musical skill, the more 
careful is he never to sound a note until he has 
the key and has mentally caught the melody of 
the chord. 

The Sunday-school teacher has entrusted to 
his care the mental, moral, and spiritual devel- 

19 




20 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



opment of immortal beings. The way he 
attempts to teach indicates his comprehension 
of the responsibilities involved, and appreciation 
of the methods and principles to be employed. 
He should know what he has to deal with, and 
what he must accomplish. The teacher needs 
the key note and the chord as much as the 
musician. 

The first thing, therefore, is to consider the 
principles of mental development. There must 
be knowledge of the child's mind in its nature 
and activity. There must be, also, a distinct 
knowledge of what is to be attained by training 
the mind through the study of the Scrip- 
tures. 

There is an important psychological distinc- 
tion between mental growth and development; 
the former being gradual increase in amount 
and improvement in quality of knowledge, while 
the latter is the elaboration of the materials 
acquired in growth and increase of facility and 
power to use knowledge. Secular education 
has often brought itself into disrepute by giving 
undue attention to the amount of knowledge 
attained and retained. The Sunday-school has 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



21 



too generally tended in the same direction. 
Those who have moulded and controlled the 
world in mechanics and arts, in commerce and 
war, in literature and religion, have been those 
who have become skilful in using knowledge 
with greatest readiness, wisdom, and force. 
They have acquired the art of training the mind 
through every exercise for greater accomplish- 
ment with the same exertion, or the same result 
with less effort. 

Christian living requires that the mind de- 
velop ability to think, feel, and choose promptly 
and effectively by applying the truth learned in 
the practical affairs of life. The aim of the 
Sunday-school should be to teach the art and 
philosophy of moulding the thought, feeling, 
and choice of daily life according to the Divine 
will as expressed in conscience and Scripture. 

The bee stings with painful poison, or delights 
with honey, according to the application made of 
nectar taken from the flowers. 

Mental development is not necessarily a 
blessing to the world. It poisons or sweetens 
according to the use made of the power devel- 
oped. An Ingersoll poisons the world at a thou- 



22 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

sand dollars a night, a Moody helps the poor, 
depressed, conscience-stricken sinner nearer 
God. Each has studied with care the art of 
influencing the mind and heart of man. 

Mental development is of such a nature that 
it needs to have character development go 
hand in hand with it, and there is no line of 
study or instruction that offers such advantages 
as the Word of God. 

In the unfolding of mind and character 
through Bible study there are three distinctions 
that may be clearly made, based on the nature 
of the human mind, on the changes involved in 
its unfolding at different periods, on the peculiar 
adaptations of the various phases of Scripture. 

In teaching the Bible there should be an 
appreciation of three great natural character- 
istics of children as the mind unfolds, the 
earliest being memory age, followed by the in- 
quisitive age, which in turn is followed by the 
analytical age. This classification we make, 
ignoring the relations of sensation, perception, 
etc., which apply in secular education as they 
cannot in Sunday-school work. 

I. Individual texts should be early memorized. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



23 



Great care should be taken in selecting those 
sentences that are to be made permanent 
dwellers in the mind. Those should be selected 
that adapt themselves to every man, to every 
human experience. They may be single verses 
or paragraphs, like the twenty-third Psalm, but 
they need to be practically independent of all 
other Scripture. They must point their own 
lesson, unfold their own truth without special 
knowledge of their associations when uttered. 
They must be rhythmical, that the thought and 
life shall vibrate harmoniously with the truth 
expressed. They must have the secret art of 
weaving themselves into the memory of the 
child, so that it shall be easier to retain the 
words once learned than to forget them. 

The foundation of all systematic study of the 
Bible should be laid in a ready command, accu- 
rate and appreciative, of a large number of 
peculiarly effective texts. It is not enough to 
have these learned for a day, but they must be 
repeated until they are recalled unconsciously 
when needed. 

A large part of the earliest years of Bible 
study should be devoted to memorizing texts 



24 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

and paragraphs. The power of verbal memory 
is at its height from six to twelve. This is not 
saying that it may not be cultivated to accom- 
plish greater results later in life by a masterly 
use of the will, of laws of thought, etc. ; but with 
the average — we may almost say the universal 
mind, the years of natural verbal memorizing 
are under twelve, or, at most, fourteen. With 
people whose after-life is not professional and 
scholastic, this is absolutely true. 

The rule is that little Scripture will be accu- 
rately memorized and retained by those who do 
not acquire the relish and the habit under 
twelve or fourteen years of age. Children will 
memorize the rhythmical Scripture texts with 
delight as early as three years of age, if the texts 
are carefully selected. Before they are eight 
they may easily be taught almost indefinitely, 
provided they never have too much assigned, 
and care be taken in the selection. 

The child mind is getting ready to study and 
think, and in this immature state it can feed 
profitably upon truths that are melodious, truths 
which stimulate its growth but make no effort 
to develop it. In the earliest years we have no 



MENTAL D E VEL PATENT. 



25 



moral right to develop the mind in the strict 
sense. We may feed it, we may direct its 
growth. It is difficult to state periods of 
change in years, but to those who will make due 
allowance for variation in children it may be 
safe to say that eight years is about as early as 
we can wisely do much by way of developing 
the powers of the mind. If we try to make 
them think, we attain no end, and merely 
destroy their relish for thought when the years 
come in which they should enjoy it. 

The strawberry is the first fruit of the season. 
It is peculiarly delicious in taste. Its crisp, 
luscious freshness makes it a universal favorite. 
But it must be the first fruit to command its 
accustomed admiration. The late strawberry is 
doomed to disappointment. It finds the taste 
of the .world otherwise occupied. So Scripture 
texts, the freshest, fairest, sweetest truth upon 
which the child mind can feed, if well chosen, in 
early years, are never the same in their relish 
afterwards. It is a matter of profound regret 
that the Revision Committee forgot the chil- 
dren when they took the verses out of the Bible, 
when they robbed it of its rhythm. 



26 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



If the texts are learned, they will germinate 
their thought under proper leadership as soon 
as the mind has maturity to appreciate it. 
When the mind is prepared to think clearly, 
keenly, it is annoyed by the drudgery of memo- 
rizing. A person who sings by rote until he is 
sixteen will find it difficult to sing by note after 
that. 

Very soon we may teach enough about the 
truth of the text to make it clearly appreciated. 
There are many advantages in having a text 
beautifully clothed. There is a disadvantage 
if we content ourselves with verbal memory. 
The rhythm results from a slightly figurative 
cast of the language. The very beauty of 
expression which makes it so easily remem- 
bered causes the meaning to escape unnoticed. 

After verses are memorized, special attention 
should be given to making the meaning in its 
simplicity understood. 

When there is a self-evident application to 
the truth, when it readily illustrates itself by a 
little direction, time and thought should be 
given to making the application. A truth is of 
little avail that is not applied, that is not at 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



27 



command and usable when needed. Every 
truth needs to be harnessed to real life, and the 
teacher must see to it that the child knows how 
to do it. 

The life is to be fashioned by the truth 
learned in earliest years. In other words, the 
child is to learn how to adapt his life to the 
truth. By the age of ten or twelve it would 
seem reasonably easy to teach the important, 
standard, rhythmical verses, the truth they 
contain, illustrating and adapting them. 

The mind in those years is getting its powers 
in readiness to think and reason. It is prepar- 
ing itself and accumulating materials. 

As the worm gives silk — the richest material 
for dress goods — to the world while he is 
getting ready to put forth his wings of beauty, 
so the mind, under proper training, may give to 
the entire character of a lifetime its richest 
vestments while it is getting ready to think and 
reason. 

Ruskin tells us in one of his works that his 
knowledge of the Bible was largely confined to 
chapters that his mother had him memorize in 
boyhood. Upon these well-remembered pas- 



28 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

sages of Scripture he has written and lectured 
much all these years. They are as follows : — 
Ex. 15, 20; 2 Sam. 1, from 7th verse ; 1 Kings, 
8; Ps. 23, 32, 90, 91, 103, 112, 119, 139; Prov. 2, 
3, 8, 12; Is. 58; Matt. .5, 6, 7; Acts, 26; 1 Cor. 
13, 15 ; James, 4 ; Rev. 5, 6. 

II. Teach the circumstances and associations 
of the truth as originally given. While many 
texts are clear without their setting, there are 
others that are literally meaningless until we 
know the customs of the times, the habits of 
the people. Teaching the geography or history 
as such is often ridiculed, but if these and other 
associative information are sought for the sake 
of making clear and vivid the truth of God, they 
are indispensable. In selecting texts to be 
memorized in early life, none should be chosen 
that need such explanation. The texts whose 
power is dependent upon an appreciative un- 
derstanding of the time, manner, and circum- 
stances of the utterance should come in gradu- 
ally from eight to fifteen. 

The associative aids of texts and truths are 
adapted to the inquisitive period of childhood, 
•when the mind craves all possible explanatory 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



2 9 



and illustrative assistance. Special delight in 
biography, geography, and other incidentals of 
truth, begins gradually at about eight, and 
reaches its height at about fifteen, and then 
begins to wane. This period is nearly identical 
with the inquisitive years. The child under 
seven rarely asks questions inquisitively, except 
as they are suggested by some special need or 
striking circumstance. From twelve to four- 
teen the child will ask questions by the day, 
and that without anything, apparently, to sug- 
gest them. Much of the time he does not 
really care whether they are answered or not. 
He will skip from one thing to another with 
absolute revelry of delight in the mere privi- 
lege of asking questions. There are different 
degrees of this activity in different children, 
but the general fact abides that the inquisitive 
period begins gradually at about seven or eight, 
and ends at about fifteen. 

During these years he should receive all the 
information possible. As we store his mind 
with texts in the early years, shading off our 
enthusiasm in them as he advances to the age 
of twelve, so we should begin to enlighten 



30 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



him regarding all the facts, incidents, customs, 
habits, etc., of the Bible at an average age of 
eight, and increase our attention to this matter 
up to fifteen. 

The cyclamen, a rare little blossom, when it 
opens, rolls its petals back, curling them by the 
stem so as to bring the heart of the flower for- 
ward to the light. Thus the child, in the inquis- 
itive years, seems chiefly desirous of having his 
mind get all the light upon truth that it can, and 
allows no pride or sensitiveness to prevent him 
from uncovering the truth to the light of every 
fact that be shed upon it. This is the time to 
teach everything that can aid the pupil to un- 
derstand the Scripture. 

III. Group the truths of the Bible with ref- 
erence to human need. Group all the texts, 
incidents, historical facts, parables, etc., that 
bear upon the given subject. Without this 
systematic work we have not accomplished our 
mission. Above the age of fifteen, on the aver- 
age, the mind makes new demands. It now 
seeks opportunities to use what it has acquired. 
The same spirit that gives uneasiness and the 
wish to leave school and get into business leads 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



31 



the youth to desire opportunity for original, 
independent, mental activity. He is no longer 
content with verbal memorizing, no longer de- 
sires to ask questions. The lad that at twelve 
asked questions indefinitely, even about things 
of which he did not care to know, will not, at 
eighteen, ask for information that he is really 
desirous of obtaining. He seems mortified that 
he does not know, and looks upon it as an ex- 
hibition of ignorance. 

Teachers of young people from fourteen to 
twenty complain because they will not ask 
questions. It is not natural. It is not the in- 
quisitive age. But, if properly handled, they 
will do more valuable work, will think for them- 
selves with relish ; but they must be started right. 
Their minds are naturally interested in classi- 
fication, in analytical, logical considerations. 

There is a tendency in youth to retire from 
the fireside, to be reticent with parents, and to 
drop out of Sunday-school. If their interest 
in home or church is to be retained, there must 
be a change in the method and manner. Even 
the affectionate, motherly way that was so 
caressingly tender and so warmly appreciated 



32 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

at twelve is sometimes repelled at seventeen. 
Parental authority has to be asserted judi- 
ciously or there is rebellion. Wise parents 
find ways by which to retain the affection, 
companionship, and control of their children 
through these years. Some teachers have an 
intuitive art by which they hold the interest 
and attention of the boys through these years, 
but more do not have the tact or secure the 
results. We must not be content until we re- 
tain most of the youth, and develop them into 
keen, devout, loyal students, and associates of 
Christian people. 

There is no branch of study that will inter- 
est so many youth so thoroughly as the Bible, 
when it is analytically studied. Let pupils do 
their own searching, with such suggestions as 
the teacher may think wise to make. It will 
be slow work at first, but it pays in the famil- 
iarity it gives with the Bible, and the power 
attained to estimate the meaning of truth. 

This practice will fix the texts in the mind 
more firmly, will give them new meaning, will 
impart intensity to their authority by empha- 
sizing their utility. 



MENTAL DE VEL OPMENT. 



33 



This grouping may be made to take the place 
of doctrines, which are so loudly and indefi- 
nitely called for in some quarters. There are 
many biographical names about which texts 
may be grouped to advantage. Any name 
specially identified with the development of 
truth offers such advantages. For illustration, 
group the texts that relate to Abraham, throw- 
ing light upon his life and mission. Better 
than any amount of theory or abstract com- 
ment on the indorsement the New Testament 
gives the Old is the experience young people 
get in learning all they can of a patriarch 
like Abraham, finding references to him in Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke, John, the Acts, Romans, 
Corinthians, Galatians, Hebrews, James, and 
Peter. 

There is no better temperance lesson possible 
than to have the pupils search out for them- 
selves all the texts that command sobriety, that 
emphasize the evils of drunkenness, that pre- 
sent a penalty for drunkenness, etc. 

The Commandments gain immeasurably by 
the grouping about each such other Scrip- 
ture as explains or emphasizes it. The Beati- 



34 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

tudes in the same way gain greatly by grouping 
around each, texts that enlarge upon it. 

For a general outline of grouping texts, histo- 
rical incidents, parables, etc., there are advan- 
tages in taking them in this order, those relating 
to man, to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to God. 

Each of these would naturally be subdivided. 
It would follow the theological line better to 
reverse the order and group the texts that 
relate to God first, but our aim is to get results. 
The logic of results is to touch the pupil where 
his thought will count for most. The youthful 
mind will respond most readily to interests 
nearest at hand, most personal. The Word of 
God everywhere teaches of the Lord. Every 
text, coming as the authority of God, reveals 
somewhat his character. Beginning with God, 
our reasoning is inevitably abstract, and as the 
purpose of the Sunday-school is not to teach 
theology, but God's Word, we shall do that most 
effectively from the concrete side. 

There are those who seem to have con- 
scientious scruples against adapting even the 
thought or speech to youth, preferring to 
adapt youth to the standard of mature methods. 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 35 

Fragrant flowers are always notional, and will 
never thrive except as the cultivation is adapted 
to them. Theoretically, plants need the sun, a 
warm climate, much moisture, and rich soil. 
Multitudes of plants will only grow away from 
the sun, others demand a cold climate, a dry 
soil, or sand. He who would raise plants on an 
abstract theory of the adaptability of sun, soil, 
climate, and heat, would find himself killing off 
most of the beauty he would possess. 

It is a surprising fact that scarcely one 
fragrant plant meets the ideal requirements. 
Weeds are not notional ; they always respond 
when abstract theories are applied. But weeds 
are never fragrant, — in the accepted sense. 
If we would develop youth in the love and 
power of the truth and its personal Author, we 
must adapt ourselves to the age, experiences, 
and necessities of those whom we would de- 
velop. The world is filled with weeds by 
means of the best endeavors ill-adapted to the 
end in view. 

In illustrating the subdivision of subjects in 
grouping texts, the following is presented as a 
sample of a few divisions under Man. 



36 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



I. His Needs. — I. Social : Relation to parents : 
relation to children ; relation to friends ; relation 
to enemies ; relation to neighbors ; business 
relations. 2. Personal : temporal ; spiritual. 

II. Consequences of Conduct. — 1. Of right 
doing ; in present ; in eternity. 2. Of wrong 
doing. 3. Of right speaking. 4. Of wrong 
speaking. 5. Of good companionship. 6. Of 
bad companionship. 

To exemplify this more fully, a few Scrip- 
ture references are given under Man's Social 
Needs : — 

RELATION to parents. 

Ye shall fear every man his mother and his 
father (Lev. 19: 3). Cursed be he that setteth 
light by his father or his mother (Deut. 27 : 16). 
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee and 
thy mother when she is old (Prov. 23:22). 
Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord 
thy God hath commanded thee : that thy days 
may be prolonged, and that it may go well with 
thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee (Deut. 5 : 16). What shall I do that I 
may inherit eternal life ? . . . Honor thy father 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



37 



and thy mother (Luke 18 : 18, 19). Honor thy 
father and mother, which is the first command- 
ment with promise, that it may be well with 
thee and thou mayest live long on the earth 
(Eph. 6: 23). My son, keep thy father's com- 
mandment, and forsake not the law of thy 
mother: bind them continually upon thine heart 
and tie them about thy neck (Prov. 6: 20, 21). 
Children, obey your parents in the Lord : for 
this is right (Eph. 6:1). Children, obey your 
parents in all things : for this is well pleas- 
ing unto the Lord (Col. 3 : 20). A wise son 
maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the 
heaviness of his mother (Prov. 15 : 20). 

RELATION OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN. 

And thou shalt teach them [the Scriptures] 
diligently to thy children (Deut. 6 : 7, 8). Train 
t up a child in the way he should go, and when 
he is old he will not depart from it (Prov. 
22 : 6). Fathers, provoke not your children 
to anger, lest they be discouraged (Col. 3:21.) 
Provoke not your children to wrath : but bring 
them up in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord (Eph. 6 : 4.) Correct thy son and he 



38 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

shall give thee rest ; yea, he shall give delight 
unto thy soul (Prov. 29 : 17). The rod and 
reproof give wisdom ; but a child left to himself 
bringeth his mother to shame (Prov. 29:15). 
Chasten thy son while there is hope (Prov. 
13:18). He that spareth his rod hateth his 
son : but he that loveth him chasteneth him 
betimes (Prov. 13 : 24). 

RELATION TO FRIENDS. 

A man that hath friends must show himself 
friendly ; and there is a friend that sticketh 
closer than a brother (Prov. 18:24). As in 
water face answereth to face, so the heart of 
man to man (Prov. 27 : 19). Can two walk 
together except they be agreed (Amos 3 : 3). 
A friend loveth at all times (Prov. 17:17). 
Faithful are the wounds of a friend (Prov. 27 : 6). 
Two are better than one .... for if they 
fall, the one will lift up his fellow : but woe to 
him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath 
not another to lift him up (Ec. 4 : 9, 10). Make 
no friendship with an angry man : and with a 
furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn 
his ways (Prov. 22 : 24, 25). 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



39 



RELATION TO ENEMIES. 

The soul of the wicked desireth evil : his 
neighbor findeth no favor in his eyes (Prov. 
21 : 10). Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
pray for them that despitefully use you and per- 
secute you (Matt. 5 144). And when ye stand 
praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any : 
that your Father also which is in heaven may 
forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not 
forgive, neither will your Father which is in 
heaven forgive your trespasses (Mark 11:25, 
26). Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
debtors (Matt. 6: 12). Parable cf the unmerci- 
ful servant (Matt. 18:23-35). Agree with 
thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the 
way with him (Matt. 5 : 25). If thou bring thy 
gift to the altar, and there rememberest that 
thy brother hath aught against thee ; leave 
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; 
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
come and offer thy gift (Matt. 5 : 23, 24). 



40 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



The more minute the subdivisions, provided 
there be texts to supply them, the closer the 
thought required in grouping and classifying 
truth, the greater the intellectual and moral 
benefit attained. 

Beside such systematic research for texts 
with a view to a logical classification by their 
thought and application to specific need, how 
frivolous seems the exercise we sometimes wit- 
ness of directing a school to search for the 
"hands," "eyes," "ears," "feet," etc., of the 
Bible. 

The following are some of the minor benefits 
of this search for truths to meet specific needs : 
It renders independent thought both possible 
and profitable, and prompts to a right applica- 
tion of Scripture remedies to human necessi- 
ties. It places teacher and pupils on a common 
footing, and brings them into sympathy by the 
development of ►a spirit of harmony in thought, 
and interest. It leads to the formation of habits 
of applying Scripture, of looking at every pas- 
sage to see where it fits into the affairs of every- 
day life. 

The growing- mind needs mental, Scriptural 



MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 



41 



food in abundance. The character of the ma- 
ture mind depends upon it more largely than is 
generally supposed. A large man does not ne- 
cessarily eat more than a small man. Size and 
food have no appreciable relation to each other 
in manhood. In youth, when size is being de- 
termined, the quantity of food usually repre- 
sents, growth. In mental, moral, and spiritual 
matters it is even more true that, as we feed and 
exercise the intellect, emotions, and will, we 
determine the maturity and power of the man. 

Some phases of the development of the indi- 
vidual mind may be best learned by studying 
the development of mind in history. Take 
music as an illustration. For centuries there 
was no suspicion of any higher phase of music 
than Melody, or a succession of notes. It was 
not until the sixteenth century that there was 
any approach to Harmony, or the combination 
of simultaneous tones. It was not until the 
eighteenth century that, under Mozart and 
Haydn, the art of harmonizing instruments of 
different capacities was developed. In music, 
therefore, it was the appreciation of the simple, 
melodious notes of the scale that satisfied the 



42 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

ear and mind of the world for centuries. Then 
it was a knowledge of the simple relations of 
similar tones to each other ; and when the taste 
and ear of the world were developed, there was 
a demand for the fullest and most complicated 
grouping of tones by every conceivable variety 
of instrument. Thus in the individual mind 
there is first an appreciation of the simple, 
beautiful texts of the Word of God ; then there 
is an inquiry as to the relations of these truths 
to each other, and to the associations in which 
they were born ; and lastly, there is a demand 
for every conceivable grouping of these truths 
to make the most perfect and intricate harmony 
for the benefit of man and the glory of God. 



ART OF THINKING. 



" Thought alone is eternal." — Owen Meredith. 

" Thought is deeper than all speech." — Cranch. 

" The power of thought — the magic of the mind." — Byron. 

" Thought by thought piled, till some great truth is loosened." 

— Shelley. 

" What think ye of Christ ? " — Matt. 22 : 42. 

" When I was a child I thought as a child." — 1 Cor. 13 : 11. 

" They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts." 
— Sidney. 

" The child's reasoning powers are, as it were, the wings with which 
he will eventually have to fly." — Landon. 

" Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of our- 
selves, but our sufficiency is of God." — 2 Cor. 3 : 5. 



CHAPTER II. 



ART OF THINKING. 

HO can estimate the distance between 
an indistinct and a distinct thought ? 
Who can measure the difference be- 
tween inaccurate/and accurate thinking? What 
is the distinction in power between a vague and 
a clear idea ? 

There is philosophy in thought. There is art 
in thinking. 

The business man learns to think distinctly, 
accurately, clearly, without studying any art, 
without adhering to any philosophy. The na- 
tive elasticity of an active mind in a vigorous 
body, the facility of the mind in adapting its 
methods in emergencies, the tendency of the 
mind to evolve a power of thought through ex- 
periment, gives a business or professional man 
a power of thought, a skill in thinking, without 
definite training. Trusting to the survival of 

45 




46 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



the fittest, they come to have an effective, if not 
a scholastic, art of thinking. 

No accidental art of thought is reliable in 
dealing with the truth of God. The truth, as far 
as it relates to the plan of salvation and the 
precepts of morality, is so clear that a wayfaring 
man, though a fool, need not err. The ignor- 
ance of many black preachers in the South has 
been a revelation of the possibilities of preach- 
ing the truth so far as the plan of salvation is 
concerned, while having no conception of the 
meaning of the Scripture which they entirely 
misused, but from which they drew another 
truth in itself correct. 

We heard the Rev. John Jasper, in Rich- 
mond, preach his famous sermon on "The sun do 
move," in which he abused half a hundred texts 
scientifically, making the Scriptures teach that 
the patriarchs, prophets, Psalmist, apostles, and 
Christ teach that the sun "do move;" that it 
was a sin against God to attempt to measure the 
distance of the heavenly bodies ; that the earth 
was not round, but flat, and had four corners. All 
the time that he was scientifically abusing the 
Scriptures, he pointed several grand truths 



ART OF THINKING. 



47 



morally and spiritually, and one of the grandest 
efforts to which we have listened was his inci- 
dental description of the passage of the Red 
Sea, illustrating it by reference to the recent de- 
liverance of his own race, with whom he had 
been in slavery forty years. 

None or all of these things, however, relieve 
the church of the responsibility of doing all it 
can to make the thought of the pulpit and pew 
distinct, accurate, clear, and loyal. A distin- 
guishing feature of the human mind is its pos- 
sibility of development. Its various faculties 
increase in strength, in discriminating skill, in 
rapidity and reliability of action, in permanency 
of effect through systematic training. The 
more correct and scientific the method, the more 
prompt and complete is its development. 

The mind has peculiar attachment for any 
line of thought in which it is developed. It 
views with reverential awe any philosophy 
through which it has been disciplined. It fol- 
lows enthusiastically any master who has led it 
to victory. 

Soldier care little for the personal character- 
istics of an officer, provided he be a brilliant 



48 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

commander in drill, a heroic leader in battle. 
So the mind swears hearty allegiance to philoso- 
phies with which it has no natural affiliation, 
and to masters with whom it has nothing in 
common, simply because the mental faculties 
delight in being marshalled, in their philosophic 
evolutions, under expert generalship. 

The mind is never so content as when it 
receives its highest, broadest development in 
Bible philosophy. It follows no leaders more 
ardently than devout, intelligent, fervent Chris- 
tian scholars and philosophers. There is no 
other line of study in which such perfection and 
vigor of development of the mind in its entirety 
is possible. Much of the skepticism and bane- 
ful philosophy of anti-Christian thought is due 
to lack of method and constancy of application 
on the part of those who should have led in the 
wise development of the mind. 

The outline of method may be concisely 
stated. 

I. Appreciation of single, simple facts and 
truths. In secular education the important 
thing in reasoning is to be clear, accurate, dis- 
tinct in our premises. Processes of reaching 



> ART OF THINKING, 



49 



conclusions are of no value if we are not skilled 
in the art of perception and conception in 
regard to initial facts. The foundations are 
nowhere more vital than here. The expert 
instructor in any art detains the pupil upon a 
few rudiments until his patience is nearly ex- 
hausted. After that he advances him rapidly. 
In penmanship it is a few initial strokes and 
movements ; in drawing, a few lines and combi- 
nations ; in music, a few notes, — that absorb 
the time. 

In thinking, the foundation of success lies in 
the keenest, clearest power to handle individual 
facts. We must know single facts personally, 
as it were. We must have power to dissociate 
the abstract idea suggested from the concrete 
thing which suggested it. We must know 
every single thought without reference to the- 
manner of its dress. Those who know people 
by their clothes, or even by their features, have 
an immature mind, while those who know them 
by dissociating the characteristics from all at- 
tachments of dress or peculiarities of feature 
have the mind in training for better work. 
The first condition of clear thought is apprecia- 



50 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

tion of every fact and truth so as to recognize 
it in its essence, under whatever conditions it 
presents itself. The steps in the cultivation of 
this art are these : — 

r. Appreciation of that which is present, 
which interests by its presence, by its active 
associations. 

2. Appreciation of that which is present, but 
interests because of its suggestion of memories 
or past associations. 

3. Appreciation of that which is present, but 
interests because of its suggestions of possibili- 
ties through, the imagination, inventive genius, 
or otherwise. 

4. Appreciation of that which is absent, but is 
recalled to the mind by memory or imagination. 

Each of these steps indicates an advance in 
mental development, and whoever finds his ap- 
preciation of single facts or truths- — present 
and absent — trustworthy, has the foundation 
of good thinking. 

Nowhere is this distinction more important 
than in Bible study. We can scarcely dwell 
too long upon the fundamentals of Christian 
•thought and Divine truth. 



ART OF THINKING. 



51 



Definitions are very rarely taught in Sunday- 
school, and yet they are worth a whole system 
of theology without them. A clear apprehen- 
sion of the meaning of terms used in theology, 
a wide dissemination of definite thought in re- 
gard to words and phrases used in theologic 
argument, would make theology interesting and 
profitable, where now it is dull, repulsive, and 
harmful. The last two chapters of this work 
deal with definitions so far as they are useful in 
those subjects, partly by way of illustration of 
the possibilities in this direction. We need to 
devote a large part of the time and energy of 
the Sunday-school to teaching the texts and 
truths that are fundamental. 

II. Discrimination between facts or truths to 
note their differences. As soon as we appreci- 
ate facts or truths, we instinctively note dissimi- 
larities, and the power which it indicates should 
be promptly, vigorously developed. The man 
who has permanent employment and the best 
pay in mechanics has this skill. It indicates 
the expert in any department. The courts rec- 
ognize this mastery of mind, and will receive tes- 
timony which the rules otherwise exclude, if ft 



52 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

be given by an expert who has acquired a repu- 
tation as well as proficiency in detecting differ- 
ences at sight, understanding their significance. 
There are steps in the development of this art. 

i. Skill in discriminating between things both 
of which are present. It is the earliest, most 
natural way of applying or developing the art. 
We all discriminate in things in which we are 
interested, and think it strange that others do 
not. The lady of fashion is haunted for weeks 
by bad taste. A certain art club of Boston me- 
morialized the city government, in a most elabo- 
rate and formal way, to protect people of artistic 
taste from the "hideous and ridiculous " monu- 
ments, fountains, etc., " architectural and sculp- 
tural monstrosities," which have been inflicted 
on the city. These very objects of such bitter 
denunciations had been supposed to be beautiful 
by those who had no skill in artistic discrimina- 
tion. Every member of that horrified club has 
his weaknesses, in which his tastes or opinions 
would be as hideous, ridiculous monstrosities as 
these fountains. 

The author knows a farmer who was born and 
bred on a farm, and has handled cattle from early 



ART OF THINKING. 



53 



boyhood, and at the age of fifty is bothered to 
tell which is the " nigh ox " of the yoke. But 
that man knows every butterfly, bug, or other 
insect at sight that ever flew in that county. 

2. Skill in discriminating between facts, 
thoughts, truths, one of which is absent. The 
physician's success in the diagnosis of a case lies 
in his power to distinguish between the symp- 
toms of the case in hand and one that is not 
present. Frequently he is discriminating be- 
tween an actual present case and an ideal case 
that in its details never occurred. 

The lawyer requires a similar power to ima- 
gine or recall a case, and then make the jury 
discriminate between this case and that. 

This phase of Bible study has been too long 
ignored. Every truth, after it is distinctly 
known, needs to be discriminated from other 
truth. One of the remarkable things about the 
Word of God is the fact that, while it is so plain 
that the " wayfaring man " need not misunder- 
stand any moral or spiritual truth it teaches, at 
the same time its fullest meaning necessitates 
the most delicate exactness in so small a matter 
as emphasis' and inflection. Although the same 



54 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



truth seems told several times, it is questionable 
whether there is an instance in which, taking 
the associations into account, there is any truth 
stated in two places in the Bible in which there 
is not a shade of difference. Even the same 
text written in Matthew and Luke has a slightly 
different force because of the different intent 
of the chronicler, and the different attitude of 
the audience. 

The incident recorded in John 4: 9-26 — the 
woman of Samaria — gets much of its force from 
the discriminating emphasis of verse 18, "Thou 
hast well said, I have no husband ; for thou hast 
had five husbands : and he whom thou now hast 
is not thy husband ; in that saidst thou truly." 
This shows by emphasis what otherwise might 
not appear, that she was living a disreputable life. 

In John, chapter 21, occur the words, "Lovest 
thou me ? " in three successive verses. Clear 
discrimination gives peculiar force to each ques- 
tion, which would be entirely lost" if there were 
but one, and is lost if they are all read in the 
same way. " Lovest thou me more than these ? " 
" Lovest thou me ? " "Lovest thou me?" Even 
the original is different in the last case to em- 



ART OF THINKING. 



55 



phasize the peculiarly tender, personal and em- 
phatic love that is intended as in distinction 
from the other queries. 

There is strong temptation to continue these 
illustrations, but from those already given it will 
be readily seen how much scope there is for un- 
folding a Bible within the Bible, — a new text in 
almost every text in the Scriptures. The teacher 
gains power to make the Word of God the most 
fascinating of studies when she trains her pupils 
to love to discriminate sharply, to seek what the 
text does not mean, and what it does mean, that 
no other Scripture does. 

III. Skill in comparing facts, thoughts, truths, 
with a view to noting resemblances. This is a 
constructive art, and is of a higher grade than 
the last. Critics are usually men who have de- 
veloped the art of noting differences without the 
positive virtue of observing resemblances. Mo- 
rose, caustic, uncomfortable people are usually 
those who have trained themselves to observe 
the dissimilarity in men, in circumstances, in 
truth, while the genial, hopeful, joyous members 
of society are those who have accustomed them- 
selves to look for resemblances. 



56 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



This art must be built upon the former. Those 
who see only the hopeful side of affairs are as un- 
safe as the other extreme is uncomfortable. The 
high art is in knowing how to analyze and dis- 
criminate sharply, and then out of the differ- 
ences build up from resemblances. Theology 
that shall command the respect of all classes of 
thoughtful minds, irrespective of inherited pre- 
judices, will be the grouping of similar truths, 
after they have been sharply discriminated, 
having been first clearly appreciated. There 
are few tributes to divine wisdom more direct, 
simple, and grand than that which the Bible 
pays to man's possibilities through the triune 
deity, when, without any theological attempt, 
we appreciate truth, discriminate in the study 
of it, and then classify it according to its resem- 
blances. It is like the chemist's art in placing 
a substance in solution, keeping it thus until it 
has lost its crude affinities, allowing it then to 
crystallize according to the higher laws of its 
nature. 

Theology is only allowable when it is the crys- 
tallized beauty and glory of the truth as it is in 
the Word of God. 



ART OF THINKING. 



57 



IV. Skill in estimating the consequences of 
facts, thoughts, and truths neglected, rejected, 
or applied. Thought is not mature until it is 
materialized. A theory that will not work in 
practice ; an invention that cannot be made to 
do what, in the abstract, it can be made to ap- 
pear to do ; a profession that is not possession 
in character, — is useless. 

There are numberless men who have made a 
hundred fortunes in the abstract, who never paid 
their honest bills a single month of their life. 
The shores of financial life are strewn with men 
who were rich so long as they could pass their 
credit for goods, but were disgraced as soon as 
the creditors tried to realize. The Patent Office 
is the receptacle of hundreds of thousands of 
inventions, most of which lacked the practical 
element of estimating the consequences of an 
application of their principle. There are multi- 
tudes of men of eminent learning, of extraordi- 
nary power of thought, theoretically, who are 
comparatively worthless members of society be- 
cause they cannot apply their thought. They 
can link their chariot to a star, but not to earth. 

A physician of comparatively slight profes- 



58 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

sional training, provided he have thorough train- 
ing in the fundamentals, may succeed where the 
most learned fail, by acquiring practical skill in 
estimating promptly and discriminatingly the 
effect of treatment. In the legal profession 
the same truth is verified by experience. In the 
ministry, in teaching, in literature, it is the same. 
The scholarly men for whom the world has no 
need console themselves with the fact that the 
world likes to be humbugged, and only hum- 
bugs succeed, but the fact remains that with 
insignificant exceptions the world wants men .of 
brains, but of brains applied to real life. 

The spider eats double quantity, — part for its 
life, and part for the purpose of spinning webs. 
When it ceases to spin, it ceases to eat, and dies 
eventually because it will not spin. Men with 
brains must feed their minds doubly well, for the 
sake of growth and of development, or the use 
of its knowledge and power for the world's en- 
lightenment. Men who will not weave their 
thoughts into the network of daily life must be 
content with the mental dyspepsia which leads 
to uselessness and unhappiness. 

The virtue of the Bible is in the application 



ART OF THINKING. 



59 



of its truth. It was written, as no other book 
ever was, to be applied. It has no merit until 
it is rooted in action. Oats placed on cotton in 
a glass of water will sprout promptly and grow 
with fabulous rapidity for a few days, but will 
never stalk up or bear grain. They must be 
rooted in the earth if they are ever to become 
food in stalk or seed. 

Truth can only benefit the possessor or the 
world when it is rooted in every-day life. 

The power of teaching the Word of God is 
measurable by the thought developed, and the 
application made in the disposition, in the acts 
towards friends and enemies, in habits of speech, 
in worship, and in spirituality. 

The story is told of a man who quoted the 
Bible fluently ; who had an unctuous tone ; who 
went everywhere but to his own church ; who 
found attendance upon public meetings, conven- 
tions, etc., a luxury that he could not deny him- 
self ; who never heard sermons, preferring to go 
where he could talk. His business was neglected, 
his hpme unprovided for, and his poor, broken- 
down, overworked wife had all the care of a large 
family without proper means of support. A 



60 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

lady who had heard the husband at a public gath- 
ering called upon the half-sick wife to tell her 
how much good her dear husband was doing, and 
was quite confounded with the truthful comment 
of the wife, that her husband always lived his 
religion away from home. Such professed Chris- 
tians dishonor the truth. 

There is a false and a true way of teaching 
the application. There are those — and they are 
not few, nor are they confined to the unlettered 
— who use the Word of God to illustrate their 
own thought. It is astonishing how many 
there are of this class, who, with voice and 
pen, put their thought first, make their own 
application of their thought, and then pick up 
some text to illustrate it. Without assuming 
to criticise such a method, — for it is the pur- 
pose of these pages to avoid direct criticism, — 
we cannot forbear calling attention to the fact 
that the art of correct and vigorous thinking 
would seem to demand that we seek to appre- 
ciate the truth as God has given it, irrespective 
of its influence upon us. We need to discrimi- 
nate sharply the special significance of the text 
to know why it was given as it was. We need 



ART OF THINKING. 



61 



to compare the various important truths, group- 
ing them for their combined power, and, knowing 
what the truth is, apply it in our lives and make 
them conform thereto. 

We may well distrust any leader who uses the 
Bible to indorse any philosophy or justify any 
action. It is safe to confide in him who seeks 
to harmonize his thought and life with the truth 
of God. 

The art of correct thinking, then, demands 
that we think vigorously, keenly, promptly 
enough to sway the words and acts of our 
life into harmony with God's Word. 

V. Reasoning inductively. We form many 
judgments without any appreciable process. If 
we have done the initial work with sufficient 
care and thoroughness, the conclusions will be 
safe and reliable. The habit of doing the early 
work correctly will project itself into the 
reasoning process and make that passable. 
Appreciation of single truths; discrimination of 
differences ; comparison of resemblances ; esti- 
mate of consequences, prompt us to form right 
judgments without any formality of processes. 
We are confident in our judgments; but if we 



62 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



are logically or sophistically assailed, we have 
no good and sufficient reason to give for our 
loyalty to our judgments. There is no liability 
of our judgment being wrong, even if we have 
no knowledge of or skill in logic. In prepara- 
tion for assaults on our own faith, at least, we 
need to be equipped with the fundamentals of 
logic. 

Inductive reasoning is the process by which 
we draw a concise conclusion from many facts, 
observations, or experiences. We begin with 
the effects and discover or conclude the cause. 
A definition is the result of inductive reasoning. 
We group the characteristics of anything into a 
definition. We append several examples of this 
process. 

1. The bean grows, so does the cabbage and 
the cauliflower. These are vegetables. We 
know of no vegetable that does not grow. We 
reach the conclusion, therefore, by induction, 
that all vegetables grow. 

2. The tansy grows, so does the motherwort. 
These are herbs, and as we know of no herbs 
that do not grow, we reach the conclusion induc- 
tively that all herbs grow. 



ART OF THINKING. 



63 



3. The currant-bush and rose-bush grow, 
they are shrubs. We proceed until we conclude 
that all shrubs grow. 

4. We may conclude from the apple-tree, 
maple, oak, and pine that all trees grow. 

5. Vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and trees are 
plants. These all grow. We know of no 
plants that do not grow. We conclude, there- 
fore, that all plants grow. 

Whether we appreciate it or not, a large^ part 
of our judgments are formed by this pro- 
cess. 

The principle upon which inductive reasoning 
rests is simply that what is true of every 
constituent part is true of the constituted 
whole. It is chiefly important that we be 
correct and careful in our observations of the 
particulars : that we consider the various in- 
dividuals from the same standpoint or in regard 
to the same quality or phase : that we generalize 
comprehensively and with care : that we state 
our conclusions accurately and clearly. 

VI. Deductive reasoning. This is the art by 
which we start from a general truth, and one 
special truth that may be connected with it, 



64 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

and deduce a third new truth. What we have 
just said in introducing inductive reasoning is 
equally pertinent here. Many form correct 
judgments, if previously well trained in the 
fundamentals of thought, without any appreci- 
ated logical process, and they are content with 
their positions, and with reason, so long as they 
are left alone. No one is equipped for intelli- 
gent self-defence, however, until he understands 
the principles of deductive reasoning. 

It is an art applied by the sophist with so 
much trickery that, even when fairly well 
equipped for logical combat, it is judicious to be 
not over-anxious to face a foe. 

All logic rests upon three principles so 
simple that no one questions their reliability, 
and upon the universality of their acceptance 
rests the authority of logic. 

1. Whatever is, is. 

2. Nothing can both be and not be at the 
same time. 

3. Everything must either be or not be. 

It may not seem important to give special 
thought to truths so simple as these, but the 
security of the superstructure depends upon 



ART OF THINKING. 



65 



the foundation, and we can hardly be too care- 
ful to understand all that is involved in these 
three statements, and they should be at our 
command as the multiplication table is. These 
principles are stated in logic as laws : — 

1. The Law of Identity. Whatever is, is. 

2. The Law of Contradiction. Nothing can 
both be and not be at the same time. 

3. The Law of Excluded Middle. Every- 
thing must either be or not be. 

Of the first law nothing need be said. Of 
the second, we may caution students to apply it 
sharply. We are liable to be wrecked by the 
application of it if we do not take time and give 
thought sufficient to be sure that we take in an 
object or thought in its entirety. It is one of 
the tricks of sophistry to show a part of a thing, 
prove that a special thing is true of it, and then 
demand, on the ground of the second law, that 
we conclude that to be true of the whole. The 
story of the shield is familiar. Each seeing but 
one side affirmed that what was true of what he 
saw was true of the whole. We can only apply 
this principle with confidence of that portion of 
a thing which we see or know. If one appre- 



66 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



date single, simple truths ; if he have skill in 
discriminating, skill in comparing, skill in ap- 
plication, he is safer without logic than logic is 
without training in the fundamentals. 

Nowhere is this second law more generally 
abused than in consideration of God and his 
dealing with men. Not a few good men, intel- 
ligent men, are afraid of logic because it has 
been and is so cruelly abused. This is an argu- 
ment for knowing more of it and not less. A 
little logic may be a dangerous thing, but not if 
that little is confined to the fundamentals, and 
whatever is known is well known. It is the 
trick of sophists to view some special phase 
of the Lord's dealing with men, and then, in the 
name of this second law, demand that that 
shall be accepted as the character of God. 
There is no place where logic is so unsatisfac- 
tory as in application to Divine things, because 
of the improbability of our getting an entire 
view of the phase of character or relations of 
parties involved in the consideration. It is not 
needed, as already remarked, in forming personal 
judgments, so much as in guarding against the 
assaults of others. We question the propriety 



ART OF THINKING. 



67 



of taking the initiative in appealing to logic, but 
believe that no Christian is so safe, intellectually 
at least, without thorough fortification in the 
principles of logic as with them. The second 
law is the one most liable to be abused in the 
consideration of Divine truth. 

The third law seems more vague an'd non- 
essential than the others, and yet its importance 
cannot be over-estimated. It rests upon the 
principle that everything must either be or not 
be. In other words, it simply insists that every 
proposition be so stated that it can be answered 
by yes or no t and then insists that it be so an- 
swered. It states that a thing is or is not. 
Most of the loose thought of the world as 
well as loose morality grows out of not in- 
sisting upon this requirement. So long as we 
ignore it and leave our propositions where they 
can be equivocally answered, or accept such 
answers to more definite propositions, there 
is no security to logic ; and if the same 
permission be granted in action, then there 
is no security to character. The Scripture 
saith wisely when it saith (Matt. 5 : 37), " Let 
your communication be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : 



68 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

for whatsoever is more than these cometh of 
evil." 

This third law demands that everything be so 
definitely and clearly stated that there shall be 
no hesitancy or reservation in saying " Yes " or 
" No " to the proposition. It must be easy to 
accept or reject promptly the statement or truth 
involved. It is worth more than may appear 
upon the surface to know our rights in this re- 
gard, and nowhere is it so valuable as in Bible 
study with those who incline to put us on the 
defensive. 

After consideration of the chapter on Belief, 
it will be more readily seen that the Christian 
who intelligently believes the truth of God, and 
has had it sealed by a personal experience, needs 
never appeal to logic, but may find it service- 
able to understand it when others use it to 
dethrone faith. Our attitude is such that it is 
the part of wisdom to insist that, if our antago- 
nists incline to argue, they shall be made to 
frame their own propositions. Since there is, 
in the nature of the case, almost no possibility 
of winning a soul to the truth by argument, we 
have little occasion to appeal to it for that 
purpose. 



ART OF THIXKIXG. 



6 9 



The difficulty at once presents itself that 
there are many questions or propositions that 
cannot be answered by Yes or No. Logically, 
there is no difficulty in this, for there is no 
proceeding except as we say unequivocally that 
a thing is or that it is not. Mathematically 
there is a third position, but not logically. In 
mathematics there may be the question of 
quantity or degree, but not in logic. 

We cannot say logically that one thing is 
harder or softer, warmer or colder, than another. 
We may say it is hard or that it is not hard ; 
that it is soft, or that it is not soft. If we say 
that it is not hard, and that it is not, soft, we 
give a pretty distinct idea of its relative position 
in the scale of hardness. 

In logic it is not equivalent to saying that 
anything has the reverse if we say that it has 
not a specific quality. We have no right to 
infer what is true from an announcement of 
what is not true. If I say that truth is not 
triangular, I do not imply that it has any other 
geometrical form. 

The secret of the necessity of employing 
Deductive Reasoning lies in the fact that there 



70 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

is a field untouched and unreachable by direct 
appreciation of truth, by the discrimination of 
truths, by the comparison of truths. It applies 
to truths that in the nature of the case cannot 
be compared directly, but must be compared, if 
at all, with some third standard with which 
each can in turn be compared. I want to know 
which of two rooms is the larger. I cannot 
bring the two together, but I can compare the 
dimensions of each with a yardstick, and with 
that as a third or middle term I can compare 
the rooms with each other. This is not the 
manner in which comparisons are made logi- 
cally, and yet illustrates in a certain sense why 
it is essential and how it may be done. 

There are three logical axioms that need to 
be given in connection with the principles al- 
ready announced. In each statement of the 
logical process there are two premises, the chief 
and the less, — or, technically, the major and 
the minor, — and the conclusion. The axioms 
are these, — 

i. Two terms agreeing with one and the 
same third term agree with each other. 

Major. Fixed stars are self-luminous. 



ART OF THINKING. 



/I 



Minor. Sirius is a fixed star. 

Conclusion. Therefore Sirius is self-luminous. 

2. Two terms, of which one agrees and the 
other does not agree with one and the same 
third term, do not agree with each other. 

Major. Planets are not self-luminous. 

Minor. Venus is a planet. 

Conclusion. Venus is not self-luminous. 

3. Two terms, both disagreeing with one and 
the same third term, may or may not agree with 
each other. 

Major. Planets are not self-luminous. 

Minor. Sirius is not a planet. 

Both these are true, but no conclusion is 
possible. The fact is, that Sirius is self-lumi- 
nous, but there is nothing in these two premises 
to show that it is. 

It is needless to say that we make no attempt 
to teach logic. We have given thus much, be- 
cause it has seemed to be made necessary by 
what went before. We repeat what we have 
more than once said already, that it is infinitely 
more important to be skilful in the first four 
steps here laid down than in either Inductive or 
Deductive Reasoning. 



72 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



Under eight or nine years of age the child 
merely appreciates single, simple truths. From 
eight to fifteen he acquires skill in discriminat- 
ing and comparing things, thoughts, truths. 
Prior to fifteen or sixteen he is merely collecting 
material for thought, and is exercising his facul- 
ties for use when he is matured. If we feed his 
mind from the Bible, if we give it systematic 
exercise in learning, appreciating, discriminat- 
ing, comparing its truths and estimating the 
consequences, we are morally certain that his 
mature thought and logic will be loyal to the 
truth as it is in the Word of God. 



I 



ATTENTION. 



" My son, attend to my words." — Pro v. 4 : 20. 

"Attend to know understanding." — Prov. 4 : 1. 

" Attend to the words of my mouth." — Prov. 7 : 24. 

" Attention narrows our mental working into one channel." 

— Landon. 

" Attention is the co-ordinating and controlling force exerted by the 
mind upon its various powers, so as to bring into strongest action this 
or that particular phase of its activity." — Landon. 

" Clear and vivid conception implies attention. To establish the 
power of attention is at first a trying effort both for pupil and teacher. 
Without this, even natural acuteness will accomplish little." 

— CURRIE. 

" Attention is necessary to the correct use of all the faculties. . . . 
It affects all sides of the intellect, and is one of the very foundations 
upon which memory is built. " — Landon. 



CHAPTER III. 




ATTENTION. 

HE object of mental discipline is to 
know where to place the attention to 
greatest profit, how to get it there 
quickest, and keep it there most intently. # Intel- 
lect, emotion, and will are all at their best when 
the mind gives attention most profitably. None 
need this power more than those who would 
know the truth of God as it is in his Word. 

Every teacher appreciates the difficulty of 
gaining and retaining the attention of a class. 
There is an inborn art by which some teachers 
hold the eye and ear, the thought and affection 
of the pupils. There are laws 'by which the 
non-magnetic teacher is aided in securing, in 
fair degree, what the more favored teacher 
gains by natural tact. The former would inten- 
sify power, while the latter would conserve 
force and make it permanent by appreciating 
the philosophy of attention. 

75 



J 6 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

When anything unusual attracts the ear or 
eye, we give heed to it without an act of the 
will. Indeed, it requires a strong act of the will 
not to give attention. This is styled involun- 
tary attention. If we continue our observation 
after the surprise is over, because we desire to 
know more about it, that requires an act of the 
will, and is styled voluntary attention. 

A child's earliest attention is involuntary, 
while that which comes from the experience of 
necessity, or results from instruction, is volun- 
tary. It is useless to ask attention of young 
children. You must not demand, but win it, 
not by artfulness, but by art. The first aim is 
to win involuntary attention, and through pa- 
tience by imperceptible transitions, train the 
scholars to will continued attention. 

In acquiring the art of attention we must 
clearly classify the various phases in which it 
may be exercised. 

No one can, in the nature of the case, acquire 
this art to a high degree in every line. Para- 
doxical as it may seem, the art of attention is 
non-attention. The greater our power of not 
' attending to nine things may be our power in 



A TTENTION. 



77 



considering effectively the tenth. One of the 
first steps in learning how to attend is to learn 
how not to. The humming-bird never flies 
towards its nest, but, when it proposes to go 
there, it shoots up into the air and then drops 
into it almost imperceptibly. So, when the 
mind proposes to attend to anything, it seems to 
desert everything, and drops upon that one line 
of thought or investigation with peculiar ten- 
acity. 

Attention may be external or internal, may 
devote itself to that to which the senses attach 
it, or to abstract considerations. Both are im- 
portant acquisitions of power, and must be cul- 
tivated, but at different times and by different 
art. 

Skill in attending through the senses to what 
transpires about us must be acquired in early 
life. There is nothing, perhaps, in the whole 
range of mental training more important than 
accuracy in observing what passes about us. 
Clearness of perception and conception depend 
largely upon the art of being attentive to objects 
and events. 

The first requisite is attention to those things 



78 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

in which we are interested through the senses, 
but we must not stop there. Many are content 
with so much of attentive power as this. Ani- 
mals have this. The beaver can build a dam, 
adapting the strength of every part to the cur- 
rent of water at that point. Even the lower ani- 
mals attend to whatever they are interested in 
through their senses. 

The second step to which the child must be 
advanced is that of attention through the senses 
to that in which he should be interested, regard- 
less of whether he is or not. The moment we 
lift ourselves to the plane where we are indiffer- 
ent to the tendencies of the senses in their likes 
and dislikes, and consider simply whether or not 
we need to attend to any object or event, we 
have taken a long stride intellectually. 

The eagle perched on a dead branch away 
from the refreshment of shade, or musical rustle 
of foliage, with his eye scanning every object in 
the horizon, equally indifferent to all attractions 
until he sees the kingfisher dart into the water 
for prey, and then gives his sole attention to 
that bird as he emerges with a fish upon which 
the eagle proposes to feed, is an example in one 



A TTENTIOX. 



79 



direction of the skill that should be attained of 
being indifferent to all sense-attractions that are 
not profitable, putting all energy into those that 
promise us good. 

Sir William Hamilton says the intensity of 
attention is in inverse ratio to its extensity. It 
is only as we train ourselves what not to notice 
that our observation of anything is valuable. 

The third step is the attainment of power to 
attend to abstract thoughts unaided by objects, 
independent of senses. Children who always 
add by counting their fingers illustrate a large 
class of people who never find it easy to do any 
thinking without directly or indirectly leaning 
their thought upon something tangible. 

Applied to Bible study, these steps mean : — 

Learning texts because of their rhythm and 
verbal fascination. 

Learning texts because we need the truth they 
contain. 

Grouping texts according to their truth for 
the sake of higher phases of truth radiated by 
the blending of many truths. 

In proportion as we have the power to attend, 
do we have control of circumstances instead of 



\ 



80 METHODS AA'D PRINCIPLES. 

being controlled by them. Without this power 
in its external and internal phases one is the 
slave of events, the servant of men of stronger 
wills. Men influence us who have no business 
to do it, simply because we have neglected to 
train ourselves to attend to our own affairs. 

The humming-bird sails up to a delicate flower 
on whose petals a tempting insect is feeding, and 
then " hums " his wings until he practically mes- 
merizes the little bug that forgets to attend to 
its own safety until he furnishes a delicate 
morsel for the bird. Thus those who have 
neglected the art of attention, whose teachers 
have neglected it, fall a prey to skeptical, seduc- 
tive men. We benefit our pupils physically, 
morally, and religiously, as well as mentally, 
when we impart the power of giving intense, 
well-directed attention. 

In class work we must appeal to the eye and 
ear by something new and distinct, bright and 
vivid, rhythmical and melodious. The familiar 
must be set in unfamiliar surroundings, or intro- 
duced at an unexpected time. We may find aid 
also, if we exercise wise caution by suggesting 
pleasure or pain, creating fear, or exciting hope. 



A TTENTIOX. 



Si 



The teacher will be aided in the accomplishment 
of this by asking questions with animation, as 
though the thought were new ; by looking into 
the eye of the child, communicating thought by 
the look. This art of looking into the face of a 
child benignantly is attainable by most teachers, 
and has a magnetic influence in winning invol- 
untary attention. 

The questions asked and the thought im- 
parted need to be vivid and suggestive. Illus- 
trations should be bright, attractive, and familiar. 
The language should have the characteristics of 
everyday life ; the voice should be mellow, ani- 
mated, and winning. 

That which requires especial caution in its 
use is the suggestion of pleasure or pain, fear 
or hope, raising expectation of reward for obe- 
dience, or punishment for disobedience. Much 
harm may be done by injudicious appeals 
through these channels. 

There is attention that is fruitless of good. 
That which is desired is attention to the teacher 
for the sake of the lesson, in order to attract to 
the truth, and to God as the source of all truth. 
The teacher is to use devices, is to let himself 



82 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



down to the scholars, only that he may gain 
their attention, and fix it upon the lesson. They 
will seize upon and appropriate any truth that 
is made sufficiently simple and interesting. 

If the class masters the teacher and holds 
him down to their level, the lesson is a failure. 
He must have the nerve and elasticity to lift 
them above their level, above himself even, to 
the great truths of the lesson. 

The teacher must take the involuntary atten- 
tion when won, and through it impart that desire 
for knowledge which shall make the pupil will 
attention. Ultimate success lies in teaching to 
desire to know the truth and impart such a 
habit of willing it that they attend without 
effort, giving voluntary attention involuntarily 
or unconsciously. So long as an effort is re- 
quired to give attention, the attention itself 
cannot be most effective. 

The adaptation of this phase of the teacher's 
work to the age of the pupils is of vital impor- 
tance. No one, perhaps, ever tried harder to 
win the attention and love of children than 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who would watch for 
the children going from school to tell them 



ATTENTION. 



S3 



stories, but he repulsed them all, and they 
styled him "Old Coley," shunning him in every 
way they could. He simply shot over their 
heads. He could not adapt himself to them, 
and there was a reason for this. He was one 
of the men of whom we have too many now, 
whose thought is on the correctness and finish 
of what they say, rather than on the capabilities 
and necessities of those whom they address. 
Charles Lamb told a good story of Coleridge, 
which, even if we do not demand that it be 
literally true, illustrates this characteristic of 
Coleridge. He met Lamb one day, and, seizing 
him by the button, began pouring forth a stream 
of philosophy in which Lamb had no conceiv- 
able interest. So he slyly took out his knife, 
cut the button off, and spirited himself away, 
all unknown to Coleridge, who held the but- 
ton and talked on, and Lamb returned long 
afterward to find him still pouring forth his 
stream of philosophy. Extravagant as it is, it 
illustrates a tendency of many who fail to gain 
and retain attention from lack of adaptability to 
their hearers, especially to the age of those 
taught. 



84 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

The adaptation of this phase of the teacher's 
work to the age of the pupils is of vital impor- 
tance. Until the child has the maturity of the 
average child of seven or eight years, little or 
no effort should be made to win attention to 
abstract truths. In secular schools we say they 
should be taught objectively till then. In the 
Sunday-school they should have those texts 
whose meaning is clear and attractive, whose 
language is rhythmical, and whose application 
appears without much explanation or effort of 
thought. Melody of sound and attractiveness 
of truth must be to the Sunday-school what the 
object lesson is to the day-school. 

From eight to fifteen there is to be gradual 
divorce from the application of art in winning- 
attention through the senses. The teaching 
must shade off from sense appeals as fast as the 
mind is prepared for it. At fifteen, ordinarily, 
dependence upon sense interest in giving atten- 
tion to a subject should cease. If the pupil has 
been well trained, he will be independent of all 
arts to hold the attention, having acquired the 
power to keep the mind to its work. 

Through the telescope we see stars by day as 



ATTENTION. 



well as by night. It is only the unaided eye that 
has its attention so diverted by the brilliantly 
diffused sunlight as to lose sight of the beauties 
of the heavens. There is no subject upon 
which it is so hard to fix the attention under 
ordinary training as upon the truth of God. 
" The cares of this world, and the deceitful- 
ness of riches, and the lusts of other things 
entering in," divert the attention, so that it is 
difficult oft-times for untrained minds to follow 
the prayer of another, the reading of the Scrip- 
ture, or even a sermon. 

The mind must be educated to command the 
thought through the will, as the telescope com- 
mands the eye, through its medium, to look at 
stars in broad day. Until the teacher has 
assisted the pupils to the attainment of this 
power, the work committed to him is not 
done. 

When this skill is acquired, the scholar may, 
with comparative ease, be trained to such habits 
of voluntary attention that he shall think along 
the line of his work involuntarily, and, so far 
as any effort of the will is concerned, un- 
consciously. There is a waste of mental energy 



86 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES, 



so long as will power is required to attend to 
any labor or truth ; and it is equivalent to 
the creation of mental force to liberate the 
stimulus used in keeping the attention to any 
effort. 

All praise to the leaders of the Primary De- 
partments who have introduced song, black- 
board, chart, picture, and concert exercises. 
But let it never be lost sight of that all the pur- 
pose these serve is to win the attention of 
young children whose minds have not developed 
the power of will indispensable to voluntary 
attention. These devices are not for show, but 
for a purpose. When used as an entertain- 
ment, when the child is permitted to depend 
upon them, when they take the place of memo- 
rizing Scriptures, these things become a hin- 
drance.. Their one work is to attract the atten- 
tion until the teacher can secure their continued 
thought without such aids. 

We must recognize, also, the mental transfor- 
mation which culminates from fifteen to eigh- 
teen. The child must be brought into a state 
of independence of all arts in holding the 
thought to its work. He must thereafter be 



A TTENTION. 



87 



taught to give attention to his work on princi- 
ple, forming habits of attention from interest 
and purpose without any effort of the will. 

There is another practical use to which the 
art or possibilities of attention should be put, 
viz., to sight-reading of the Bible. It is a hu- 
miliating fact that no book is read with so little 
heed as the Word of God. There are times 
with most people when, if, after reading a chap- 
ter in this sacred volume, they should be asked 
to tell of what they have been reading, they 
could give but the merest outline, if even that. 
There is no excuse for this, since no book is so 
easily read attentively as the Bible. The only 
difficulty is that no attempt has been made to 
provide for this. 

Marvellous results have been attained by those 
who have sought to develop skill in seeing the 
greatest number of things at sight in a given 
window. Almost anyone can, in a short time, 
acquire the ability to attend so keenly that he 
can pass a store-window at ordinary speed and 
see more than a score of things at sight, and 
remember them. We can attain the skill to pass 
through a library and at sight observe and re- 



88 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



member as many volumes, telling the name, 
author, and color of each book. 

A little judicious training in Scripture sight- 
reading will give power to read any chapter rea- 
sonably simple and interesting, and give all the 
details of its teaching. Select at first only a 
few verses ; those that are clear and fascinating. 
The historic incidents in the Old Testament are 
good. Spend five minutes at the opening of 
each session in having the scholars read some 
short selection to themselves ; then, closing the 
Bible, ask one or more to recite all that is re- 
membered. 

Such an exercise takes the thought from all 
other outside things : fixes it on the Bible ; 
quickens their thought ; awakens the attention. 
You will gain more time than the exercise has 
taken. An occasional exercise of this kind, at 
least, would be profitable. 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 



" Memory, the warder of the brain." — Shakespeare. 
" Hail, memory, hail ! in thy exhaustless mine 
From age to age unnumbered treasures shine ! " 

— Rogers. 

" Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned 

OUt." — RlCHTER. 

" Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 

— Eccl. 12 : I. 

" Memory is the treasure-house of the mind." — Fuller. 

" Persons who possess the power of keeping a large number of con- 
sciously-stored ideas just ready for use, and who can at once bring 
them forward when wanted, are said to be possessed of a good mem- 
ory." — Landon. 

" If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
mouth." — Ps. 137 : 6. 



CHAPTER IV. 



m 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 

HE Bible needs to be so taught that 
its truths, the words in which they are 
clothed, the circumstances attending 
their utterance, and their application to man's 
need, shall be retained by the mind. In Bible 
teaching, little or no appeal can be made to the 
senses ; hence the necessity of some method 
which shall give a correct knowledge of the Word 
of God, ability to retain it, and facility in recall- 
ing it so that it may be available when needed. 

A truth to be remembered needs to be defi- 
nitely, accurately, firmly fixed in the mind, with 
closely-affiliated associations, such that, when any 
one of these facts or incidents is remembered, it 
shall inevitably recall the truth itself. We do 
not remember that which is indefinite when we 
learn it, because it is blurred like the photo- 
graph of a child that moves before the camera. 

91 



92 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



When texts become familiar, while the truth 
they teach is indefinite, they will not be recalled 
when needed. Accuracy is equally important, 
since much of the looseness in theologic thought, 
much of the tendency to question the reliability 
of Scripture, results from lack of accurate knowl- 
edge of the phraseology of texts, of the exact 
meaning and special significance of words. 

A fact or truth must be firmly fixed. Time 
must be taken, or special skill exercised, to assim- 
ilate or weave it into the mind, or it will never 
reappear. Many things that we think we learn 
soon fade, like the proof of the photographer 
upon exposure to the sun. 

Memory, like a panorama, passes events in 
review, grouping them into families or land- 
scapes, refusing to give place to any dissociated 
fact, homeless waif of thought, or uncompanion- 
able idea. Our knowledge of Biblical truth, 
therefore, needs to be affiliated as closely as 
possible with everything of interest that will 
fraternize with it. 

The attitude of the mind toward truth when 
it is learned determines largely the power of 
retaining the thought then matured. Our in- 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 93 

terest in a truth, other things being "equal, 
measures its grip upon our mind, because we 
see most readily and vividly that which we like 
best, and it abides with us a proportionately 
long time. Those matter-of-fact critics who 
think it all sentiment when we emphasize the 
necessity of pupils loving the teacher, the 
school, and the lesson, must be ignorant of 
the fact that no philosophy is better established 
than that love for a truth learned, and for all 
the associations in which it is learned, is essen- 
tial to its secure attachment to the mind. 
Hence arises the responsibility of parents and 
others in weaving about the child a network of 
pleasant associations in connection with what- 
ever pertains to the church and Sunday-school, 
their officers and members. Every criticism is 
an attack upon the child's interest in, or love for 
the truth of God, and by interposing an un- 
pleasant association is liable to rob the child 
of truth in which his eternal interests are in- 
volved. 

Forgetfulness is such a recognized bane in 
human experience that the teacher is inexcus- 
able if he does not use every means at his com- 



94 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



mand to enlighten his pupils in the art of not 
forgetting what has been once known. 

Bible truth is liable to be so disconnected 
with other knowledge and daily life as to be- 
come a companion piece to " Sunday religion," 
and never be recalled except at church or prayer 
meeting. It requires wise and patient teaching 
to so establish truth that it shall be remembered 
at all times when it can be of service. 

Recalling past knowledge is a phase of the 
art of remembering that needs to receive spe- 
cial attention. It is sometimes an involuntary, 
sometimes a voluntary, mental act. Whenever 
the mind is not employed in active effort, it 
usually entertains itself with a panorama of 
what it has previously known. Such is the na- 
tive elasticity of the- mind, and so great is its 
enjoyment of its own treasures, that it recounts 
its wealth of memories. Its resources are so 
inlinked with each other down to the active pres- 
ent that, when at our best, we can scarcely see, 
hear, or learn anything without involuntarily 
recalling a chain of instances in our past ex- 
periences. 

For illustration, I meet a lady in the horse- 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 95 

cars, who, though a stranger, has a hand-satchel 
that reminds me of the only other one I ever 
saw like it, that was carried by another stranger 
on a Western train ten years ago. That recalls 
the excursion I was then taking, and I run over 
a series of incidents until I am once more in San 
Francisco. I recall attending church, recall the 
text, the peculiar way it was handled, the good 
impression it made. This leads me to recall 
the preacher, and I pass in review the various 
ways in which I have known of him, and it occurs 
to me that I heard that he desires a change of 
pastorate, and I interest myself in him, and he 
secures such a field as he desires. 

The entire line of recollection was involun- 
tary. One incident followed another because, 
when it occurred, it was linked to the one next 
to it. We may voluntarily recall an event by the 
same process ; in which case, knowing what 
we wish to recall, we bring to mind everything 
in our past experience that would be liable to 
be associated with the person, place, name, etc., 
we aim to recall. With skill and patience we 
may voluntarily recall almost anything we have 
ever known. 



96 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

The science of not forgetting anything is to 
associate it with things most likely to suggest 
it in time of need. Whoever trains himself to 
dovetail his knowledge into the activities of life 
is almost certain to have it recall itself when 
needed ; and if it does not, it reduces to the 
minimum the labor of recalling it by the exer- 
cise of the will. 

The success of Sunday-school teaching lies 
largely in having every truth so related to 
human need, to other truth, and to the Author 
of all Truth, that whenever any experience needs 
a Divine truth, it involuntarily recalls it through 
the law of association, or makes it an easy 
matter to recall it voluntarily. The way truth 
is learned determines the tenacity with which it 
is remembered and the facility with which it is 
recalled. 

While it is possible for a truth to be so vividly 
impressed at first as to be permanently retained 
and readily available, it is so rare an experience 
as to be considered an improbable occurrence. 
A single impression seldom suffices for perma- 
nency. It is, as a rule, only a question of time 
for the erasure of the impression of a truth con- 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 97 

sidered but once. If, after it has been thus 
obliterated, it be reconsidered, it is, to all 
intents and purposes, the meeting of a new 
truth. The keener the attention when a truth 
is learned, the less need of repetition. It is a 
time-saving process, therefore, to acquire such 
skill in attention as to reduce the waste of 
time in reconsideration to the minimum. 

Into everything that is well learned we spin 
a part of our best self, our thought. Our 
knowledge, when it is acquired with interest, is 
like the web of the spider, who puts himself 
into it, and still retains such a sensitive 
connection with it that to touch any thread 
touches the insect himself. Our knowledge 
should be such that to touch it at any point is 
to make everything connected with it alive in 
memory. 

Every truth needs to be reviewed and its 
expression repeated so frequently as to make it 
practically inerasable: Each truth should be 
reconsidered until its echo becomes perpetual 
in the mind. Frequent repetition of a truth is 
a substitute for strenuous mental effort in 
attention. There is no virtue in repetition 



9 8 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



except as it gets a firmer grip of thought each 
time. 

The melody of Bible language cannot be 
over-estimated as an aid in remembering and 
recalling the truth which the texts enshrine. 
Words symbolize ideas, and well chosen words 
convey ideas that become loyal residents of the 
mind. The teacher, therefore, who holds the 
text before his scholars in such a way that its 
truth is radiated by its words, does for the class 
an effective service. 

We have already shown how by a voluntary 
mental act we can recall a thing once well 
known, by training the mind to proceed method- 
ically in its search for that which has for the 
moment escaped us, bringing to mind systemat- 
ically the places, times, and circumstances with 
which it may possibly have been associated. 
Thus we may aid ourselves in recalling a truth 
"by locating it in its Bible home, associating it 
■with the book and the writer. He who knows 
the residence of a text, so to speak, who is 
familiar with the externals of each book in the 
Bible, who can readily analyze each book, 
knows how to proceed with his search for a 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 99 

given text, knows the limited number of places 
where such a text can be found, knows who 
would be liable to write it, in what connection 
he would be likely to write it, etc. He who 
accustoms himself to recall truth thus systemat- 
ically soon has a surprising command of the 
Bible. 

The teacher should make a special effort to 
train the pupil thus to familiarize himself with 
every section of the Bible, so that he can with 
ease trace every truth home. 

The art of remembering words must not be 
regarded as the highest art. Many have the 
power of verbal memory who have no great 
mental ability. Indeed, it may almost be said 
to be a dangerous art to develop, if it go no far- 
ther. It is one of the early phases of memory, 
and is to be employed to great advantage be- 
tween the ages of seven and twelve or fifteen. 
Soon after the child begins to memorize words 
he should be trained to remember truth inde- 
pendently of the words in which it is expressed. 

Here the Bible excels all other books in adapta- 
bility to the development of the human mind. 
It not only has an indefinite array of clear, sim- 



100 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



pie, beautiful texts that can be memorized and 
utilized, regardless of their surroundings, sen- 
tences that have not their equal in any other 
book, but it has a beautiful array of incidents, 
the language of which one could scarcely remem- 
ber if he would, but the thought of which is re- 
tained with great ease, — such as the parables, 
miracles, and historical incidents. 

There is as definite and clear a demand for 
teaching to memorize incidents divorced from 
the expression, as there is for memorizing words, 
and, in a sense, a greater demand for it. 

A fish takes air through its gills so long as the 
water keeps the gills open, but no longer ; so 
some people remember a truth so long as the 
words in which it floats keep the mind limbered 
up, but never think of it, pant for it in vain until 
they can get the first word of the text, and then 
it all comes back to them. Important as is the 
remembrance of words in their place, it is as 
important to remember truth without attempt- 
ing to fix the words. If we cannot do that, we 
are mentally weak and should strengthen that 
faculty. 

The next higher grade of this art is power to 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 101 



remember truth that is not clothed in incident 
or story. In Job we find great truths grandly 
stated, but the truth is powerful aside from the 
language, and is best remembered without it. 
Many truths in the prophecies are of the same 
order. The truth is clear and grand, and. as 
truth, needs to be remembered. 

Higher yet is the art of remembering truth 
in its relations to life and other truth. That 
touches God and man at the same time with a 
closely affiliating power. For illustration, Rom. 
4 : 13 : " For the promise, that he should be the 
heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his 
seed, through the law, but through the righteous- 
ness of faith." There is no occasion to remem- 
ber this text. Its language is not calculated to 
cling tenaciously to the mind, and there is no 
incident to fix the truth. The truth itself is for- 
cible, that Abraham's faith in God's promises, 
rather than his obedience to the law, made him 
heir to all that his seed have inherited. The Epis- 
tles are full of truths that need to be lifted above 
their language and incidents, and be remem- 
bered in their dissociated grandeur as the essence 
of truth. 



102 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

One of the most important elements in the 
art of remembering Bible truths is to discrimi- 
nate what is to be remembered and how it is to 
be remembered. To commit those texts whose 
rhythm and truth are companionable is safe, be- 
cause all such texts are serviceable. There is 
not a text in the entire Word of God, that is 
adapted to easy memorizing, that is not valuable, 
and there is not a truth that we need to have 
crystallized in harmonious phrase that is not so 
set in some text. The key to success lies in 
wasting neither time nor energy, making no 
false move. There is time to teach all that 
needs to be taught, provided it be well done. 

Another indispensable element in the art of 
remembering is to awaken a deep, permanent 
interest in Bible truth. A yoUng lady has no 
difficulty in remembering a stitch in fancy work, 
a shade of ribbon, or a style of lace, who cannot 
possibly remember the golden text. A house- 
wife will remember with ease a recipe that a 
gentleman would n't attempt for anything, but 
she cannot memorize the simplest text. A 
lad will remember all the details of a game of 
base ball that would be an impossibility to a 



THE ART OF REMEMBERING. 103 

college professor, but he declares that he cannot 
learn Scripture. If we can awaken an interest 
in the Bible, if we can by any device, fervency, 
or tact make children love the texts and truths 
they learn, it will supplement all methods with a 
power above and beyond them. 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 



" For use almost can change the stamp of nature." 

— Shakespeare. 
" Patient continuance in well-doing." — Rom. 2 : 7. 
" Continue in prayer." — Col. 4 : 2. 

" Habit is an internal principle which leads us to do easily, natu- 
rally, and with growing certainty, what we do often." — Webster. 



CHAPTER V. 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 

E have accustomed ourselves to apply 
the term " habit " only to the vicious 
tendencies of mind and body. We are 
liable to forget that in the true sense and under 
proper restrictions it is an important means of 
conserving mental energy. Our faculties have 
an inherent tendency, when left to themselves, 
to form wrong habits of actions, so that people, 
naturally refined, are safe only when they have 
established correct modes of activity. 

Medical science and surgical skill are teach- 
ing us what may be done in righting physical 
deformities, adjusting many bodily ills that were 
supposed unchangeable. Mankind is indebted, 
beyond its power to repay, to the thought and 
experiment that have made these physical 
changes possible. 

The mind is infinitely more susceptible to 

107 




108 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

modifying influences, good or bad, than the 
body. While the body is an organism of 
growth, the mind is largely one of development. 
Mental deformities are rebellions, to be quelled 
or coerced by the rectifying activities of the 
mind. 

Our manners, conduct, and behavior are the 
resultants of physical and mental tendencies 
and influences, under the direction of duty or 
obligation. Our religious thoughts and emo- 
tions are the Heavenward tendencies of the 
intellect and feelings under what seems to be 
Divine guidance. We consider habit, then, as 
physical, moral, intellectual, or religious. 

In the strict sense, habit applies to those acts 
that are under the control of the will. Its aim 
and tendency for good or ill are to reduce the 
will-element to the minimum, so that we may do 
right or wrong without drawing upon the will. 
Habit establishes a disposition to do a certain 
thing in a given way under specified conditions, 
without appreciable motive or effort. 

After anything has been done in one way re- 
peatedly, we come to do it without noticeable 
attention, unactuated by any recognized desire, 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 109 

purpose, or resolve. This condition is attaina- 
ble, physically, morally, mentally, or religiously, 
through frequent, uniform repetition of volun- 
tary operations until they are performed as well 
involuntarily, and, so far as any mental exhaus- 
tion is concerned, unconsciously. Habit, there- 
fore, practically creates brain power and nerve 
energy, performing acts and accomplishing 
results which naturally draw upon the mind and 
will without the exercise of any measurable 
mental or nerve force. 

Ice-cutters will take a pond on which the ice 
is two feet thick and more, and by grooving the 
surface an inch or two will crack it into cakes 
with no appreciable effort. So our lives are 
blocked out for years by the grooves which 
habit runs in youth. 

We will consider chiefly the influence of habit 
for good, since the best way to prevent or rec- 
tify a bad habit is to establish, through direct 
effort of the will, its antidote, good habit. The 
power of habit, physically considered, may be 
illustrated by the habit of early rising. A man 
has a strong inclination to indulge in the luxury 
of an extended morning nap. For convenience 



110 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

of the family, from business interest, or out 
of self-respect, he decides to yield to that dis- 
position no longer. It requires a great effort of 
the will at first ; after a little time the effort re- 
quired is lessened, until, if he never wavers, he 
will put his physical nature into a new line of 
action. The time required depends upon the 
age and strength of the old habit ; but, under 
any circumstances, the will can adapt the sys- 
tem to the new regime. There must be suffi- 
cient determination, an unwavering constancy 
in the exercise of the new habit. 

This illustrates the true method of dealing 
with all physical habits. To break up the habit 
of intemperance or any kindred vice, we must 
form a habit of total abstinence. There needs 
to be an all-mastering decisiveness in the 
initiative act, as there was in the case of early 
rising. The will needs to give its entire atten- 
tion to the decisive act, and then it needs to 
bend all its energies to total abstinence, regard- 
less of the amount of will power required, until 
the physical system habituates itself to the new 
order of things. 

In the case of physical habits, where the aim 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. I I I 

is to establish a habit of utter disregard of 
certain sense-appeals or physical craving, much 
depends upon the reasons and motives for form- 
ing the new habits. These may be so great, 
and the good to be attained may come home to 
the mind with such vividness, that the habit 
may be as good as formed instantly. Some of 
the almost miraculous reforms of the intemper- 
ate under Mr. Moody's leadership are psycho- 
logically explained in this way. 

That the true way to break up a vicious habit 
is to form another good habit will be apparent 
to anyone who will consider the matter in its 
relation to the action of the mind. 

As we shall show in the chapter on Emotion, 
it is possible to cure even organic diseases of 
some kind by a change of the thought, directing 
the attention elsewhere, while it is well-nigh 
impossible to get remedies to act, if the patient 
studies his own symptoms. 

Change of attention is absolutely essential for 
the remedy of a bad habit. When one says 
continually, " I will not do it. I will not, will 
not do it," it is simply a question of time how 
long before he will do it. Every time he says he 



112 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

will not do it, he rivets his attention upon it, 
and is, to a certain extent, magnetized by the 
fascination of it. If, on the contrary, he can fix 
his attention upon doing something else, he is 
making the permanency of his reform cer- 
tain. 

When an intemperate man reforms, he stands 
a hundred times as good a chance of holding 
firm to his changed life if he keeps clear of all 
temperance work and goes into church work as 
a general Christian laborer. The true idea of 
temperance reform is not reached, and will not 
be until the. church gathers individually the 
men who need to be reformed, and keeps them 
active in Christian work not associated with 
thoughts of their past. 

This necessity is illustrated in the home 
where a shrewd mother— -and mothers need to 
know the philosophy of psychology — cares for 
her children. 

A child hurts himself : one mother will pick 
him up and pet and kiss him, and soothe the 
" bumped" head, keeping the c'hild's thought on 
it longer than he otherwise would. We have 
seen children, after falling, look around to see if 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 



113 



they can see the mother ; if not, they go on with 
their play without more ado ; but if they can see 
the shadow of the mother, they rush to her for 
the luxury of tears and " coddling." 

Another and wiser mother will not touch the 
child unless the injury be serious, will not 
appear to notice that any accident has hap- 
pened, but will, with tact, turn the child's 
thought from himself and from his accident. 

The secret of success in all change of habit 
from bad to good is to get the current of 
thought changed. 

Habitual indifference to everything that does 
not contribute to our good is a necessity. 
The artist trains himself to habitual indiffer- 
ference to everything but the ideal in his land- 
scape. The sculptor works away at a block of 
shapeless marble, indifferent to all but the ideal 
image seen only by himself. 

The man who would attain unto perfect man- 
hood must learn to be habitually indifferent to 
the invitations that tempt to anger, to the vexa- 
tions that prompt to jealousy, to the social gos- 
sip that breeds envy. No character is well 
formed that is not founded on habitual indiffer- 



114 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

ence to every external influence. This must be 
cultivated with the same decision and persis- 
tency of purpose that any other habit is. It 
yields to the same laws. 

Morality is conformity to the highest stand- 
ard of right and virtuous action, with the best 
intention founded on principle. 

Circumstanced as we are, it requires a vigor- 
ous exercise of the will, strong mental energy, 
to be moral in this sense, but such habits may 
be formed that we shall promptly and uniformly 
choose to abide by the highest rules of morality 
without appreciable effort. 

An attempt has been made to discount 
such virtue as meritless because requiring no 
struggle. There are different degrees of dis- 
position to virtue as to vice, but the rule holds 
that no one attains this condition of appa- 
rently automatic virtue until he has had so 
many self-conquests as to make resistance to 
temptation so natural as to be done uncon- 
sciously. These conquests may have been so 
early in life, this habit may have been formed at 
such an early age, that virtue is practically in- 
grained, making its possessor in the highest 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 



115 



sense cultured in the art of morality. Such 
virtue is of the choicest variety. 

Religion concerns the thoughts, emotions, 
and actions of man in his relation to God. Man 
may be religious by so exercising the will as to 
place and hold himself in an attitude toward 
the triune Deity, which is at once reverent, obe- 
dient, and affectionate. This religious attitude 
becomes permanent through an established 
habit. It is a mistake to content ourselves with 
the first choice of Christ and consequent' joy of 
reliance on him. Our faith, hope, and love 
must develop into habitual activity. 

Before we allow ourselves to form religious 
habits there should be an intelligent, affectionate 
choice of Christ as our Lord and Saviour. If 
we do not start right in the religious life, if we 
allow our habits to form on any other than an 
intelligent principle, we shall find ourselves en- 
cumbered with habits, to uproot which will 
require time and immense will-power. It will 
threaten to break up the very foundations of our 
belief. It is a dangerous experiment to teach a 
child to fear and serve the Lord from supersti- 
tion rather than intelligent love. It is a mistake 



Il6 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



to teach anybody to view God as content with 
the observance of any special ceremonies, or the 
acceptance of any eccentricity of belief. It is 
inexcusable in this age of the world to estimate 
God's satisfaction with our belief or worship by 
a certain delectable, emotional state into which 
we may acquire the art and habit of working 
ourselves. 

Any one of these errors is liable to make -a 
man an intense disciple on false lines, magnify- 
ing stubbornness into grace, fanaticism into 
courage, and erratic, mischief-making tendency 
into a virtue. 

A believer in Christ, who consecrates his life 
to the Master without intelligent, balanced in- 
struction in the formation of correct habits of 
belief, emotion, and activity, is a prey to a 
variety of evil tendencies. 

If in the formation of habits there be such 
infrequency that the effect of one effort passes 
away before a second is made, no number of 
these distant performances will effect a habit. 

Every single mental act spends its energy 
after a definite season as certainly as any me- 
chanical or physical force. In order to keep 



PHILOSOPHY OF HABIT. 



117 



the mind and heart in such a state of activity 
that a habit is formed, the early repetitions must 
be frequent. 

Uniformity is equally essential. An act may 
be performed nine times in ten ; but if it be 
varied or omitted the tenth time, it vitiates all 
the others. In any good habit the virtue lies 
in constant uniformity of right-doing. There 
is the highest psychological philosophy in the 
text that teaches that he who offends in one 
point is guilty of all. 

To be a Christian, and enjoy all the privileges 
and rewards that it implies, is to make intelli- 
gent choice of Christ, to rely affectionately upon 
him, to serve him with such frequency of act 
and uniform loyalty of devotion as to make our 
Christian thought, emotion, and choice a per- 
manent habit. 



USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 



" Let none of you imagine evil against his brother." — Zech. 7 : 10. 
" Imagination rules the world." — Napoleon. 

" Imagination consists in taking parts of our conceptions and com- 
bining them into new forms and images more select, more striking, more 
delightful, more terrible, etc., than those of ordinary nature." 

— Webster. 

" Keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart 
of thy people." — 1 Chron. 29 : 18. 



CHAPTER VI. 



USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 

CHILD becomes in large measure 
what his imagination inspires him to be. 
A father may be the essence of truth 
and righteousness, the mother the embodiment of 
devotion and affection, the teacher consecrated 
and faithful, the pastor sincere and eloquent, 
and yet, by the neglect of the child's imagina- 
tion, leave others to determine what manner of 
man he shall be. Some older playmate, nurse, 
servant, hostler, or other companion, may steal 
a few minutes now and then to charge his mind 
with the wildest flights of imagination of the 
sea, of frontier life, of licentious possibilities, of 
heroic deeds, of cunning exploit ; and that boy of 
many prayers may go from the best home into 
a profligate life. The broken-hearted parents, 
the disappointed teacher, the discouraged pastor 
cannot understand the wayward tendency of a 




122 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



child so well brought up. They do not appre- 
ciate the importance of wise training of the im- 
agination. No child is safe, humanly speaking, 
whatever other good influences surround him, 
whose imagination is. not directed by some 
intelligent, discriminating, magnetic, Christian 
mind. 

The imagination, when properly developed, 
keeps from mischief on the one hand and de- 
velops virtue and faith on the other. In place 
of forcing a child to work, it is possible to give 
such an imaginative turn to his duties that he 
shall delight in them. Observe the mother who 
has tact with her children. She wants the yard 
cleared up by boys, and not one of them wants 
to work. Instead of requiring it of them, and 
spending her time in enforcing obedience, she 
quietly says, " Now play the door-yard was the 
Mechanics' Fair building, and the exhibition is 
advertised to open at three o'clock. Do you 
think it is in condition to receive Governor Rob- 
inson and his suite ? Which department will you 
get ready, Joe ? And you, Frank ? " At once the 
yard is transformed, and they imagine them- 
selves in the great building, and have a grand 



USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 1 23 

time clearing up, and are sorry when there is 
not a stone or stick left. She teaches them to 
make work light, and exercises the imagination 
in healthful ways. 

Many scholarly men have been recreant in 
their loyalty to God, aye, even to the higher 
morality, because their imaginations have been 
stimulated along merely scholastic lines. As 
society is constituted, the Sunday-school teacher 
has the privilege of fashioning the future of the 
young through the best possible resources for 
christening the imagination. 

Success depends upon determining the rela- 
tive natural strength or weakness of this faculty 
in each child. In most children it is sufficiently 
marked in some direction. With one it is 
inventive, with another dramatic, with others 
emotional. There are cases in which it gives a 
keen sense of beauty, a higher appreciation of, 
and insight into, truth. It is the parent's first 
duty to discover the natural bent of the child's 
imaginative faculty, and estimate its strength 
for good or ill. The teacher is not under the 
same obligation and has not the same oppor- 
tunities, but in a general way he can to advan- 



124 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



tage estimate the imaginative possibilities of 
the child. 

In early life, and to a great extent through 
life, it is an involuntary mental exercise, and as 
such needs to be baited with a sincere, success- 
ful appeal to the interest, and, so far as the 
teacher knows the native bent of the child's 
mind, he can use such knowledge in awakening 
an interest in the higher processes. 

The child's attitude of mind must be assumed 
by the teacher. The imagination must be fed 
upon that which is already known. Although 
it may make startling transformations in mat- 
ters of size, shape, relations, and circumstances, 
it nevertheless develops through assimilation of 
what is known. The teacher is always tempted 
to use his own knowledge, and develop those 
phases of the imagination which he most 
enjoys. 

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, 
that the teacher place himself in such confiden- 
tial, friendly relations with the children that he 
may hear them express themselves freely upon 
subjects of their own choosing, in order that he 
may supplement his theory of what they ought 



USE OF THE IMAGINATION. 12$ 

to know by his observation of what they do 
know and in what they have a lively interest. 

He needs to know what they imagine regard- 
ing themselves and their future ; their relations 
to their inferiors, their equals, their superiors ; 
their relation to God, to the authority of God's 
law in the Bible, and conscience. 

The imagination idealizes that which is 
known into what they wish might be. It is to 
be taught to idealize it into what it ought to be. 
All knowledge may be transformed into an aid 
or a hindrance in life. It is the teacher's privi- 
lege to furnish those conditions which will give 
it a right bias, developing it into what it should 
be. 

In accomplishing this, several things are es- 
sential, — (i) to appreciate what is already 
known, having it so clearly outlined, so ready 
for use, that any fact known will be at hand 
without searching for it ; (2) to know what is 
attainable through its use, having clear concep- 
tion of the possibilities of this faculty ; (3) to 
understand how to attain that after which we 
aspire. This requires close attention to the 
method and manner of its use. 



126 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



A motive must be established before there is 
a balance-wheel provided which assures any de- 
gree of safety. No human foresight can antici- 
pate the consequences of creating an interest 
for the imagination without guarding and guid- 
ing it with a well-established motive. 

Every idea, vital to the Christian life here 
and hereafter, needs to be vividly pictured. 
Little incidents in play-life, in school-life, in the 
workshop and home, need to be transformed 
through the imagination into victories, accom- 
plishments, and attainments, through Christ. 
It is easy, as it is valuable, to train children to 
estimate in imagination the benefit to character 
that comes with being just to ourselves, our 
fellow men, and God. 

In furnishing a motive, the teacher of the 
Bible has the advantage of all others, as he has 
in estimating the influence on character of 
every thought and act. The texts, parables, 
and allusions give imaginative views, or the 
materials for such views, of the consequences 
of action. 

Imagination must be allowed all the play it 
demands, but it must be kept on the track of 



USE OF THE IMAGINATION. \2J 

Divine law, getting its exercise in onward move- 
ment rather than in skeptical speculations and 
vagaries. Loyalty to the Scriptures is nowhere 
more important than in imagination. 

People whose imaginations have not been 
skilfully handled, who lack skill to break up ex- 
periences, and truths into sections, and regroup 
them on a broader scale, make that class in so- 
ciety that wants a belief to emphasize some one 
element of faith or worship. They want every- 
thing in earth and Heaven to depend upon some 
insignificant thing, some materialization of a 
theory, some tangible idea. The unbalanced, 
uncultured imagination provides erratic people 
who recruit the delusive and vicious "isms." 
Take any new semi-religious delusion with a 
curative attachment, and it is notorious that 
nearly every cranky, whimsical device to ruin 
the souls of men by too much or too little reli- 
gion has a healing art attached to it, and it will 
be found that almost every one whom it enlists 
has been previously " off " on some other kin- 
dred delusion. As a rule, it is psychologically 
demonstrable that their imagination lacks bal- 
ance and culture. The philosophy of it is, that 



128 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

those whose imaginative powers are accustomed 
to magnify one idea in faith or practice are con- 
stantly contracting that faculty, and can only 
be satisfied with an ever-increasing fanaticism to 
meet the requirements of a disordered imagina- 
tion. In due time nothing that is sound in 
sense or reliable in philosophy will or can 
gratify them. The teacher who trains pupils 
so that they shall escape such snares does them 
and the world a service. 

A well-trained imagination gives power to es- 
timate correctly present acts in their future 
relations ; in other words, their personal, social, 
and religious consequences for good or evil, for 
time and eternity. No other book offers such 
facility for developing the mind in this regard 
as the Bible, and the teacher can readily use it in 
such a way as to establish a habit of thought 
by which it can know and experience truth, and 
gain facility in developing such keen and relia- 
ble imaginative power that in each event of life 
he instinctively pictures the possible and prob- 
able results of each of two available choices. 
Then it is easy to establish right principles of 
action. 



THE EMOTIONS. 



" Some feelings are to mortals given 
With less of earth in them than heaven." 

— Scott. 

" Thinking is only a dream of feeling." — Novalis. 
" To maintain a flow of pleasure is the highest consummation of 
vital energy." — Bain. 



* 



VII. 



THE EMOTIONS. 



| HERE are two classes of feelings which 
do not come legitimately under the head 
of emotions. All the susceptibilities 
due to the putting forth of muscular energy are 
classed as muscular feelings ; while those due to 
the action of the outer world upon us through 
the senses are styled sensations. 

Emotions, properly considered, are less defi- 
nite, less tangible. They are secondary and 
complicated, the diffused effect of a variety of 
causes physical and mental. 

The emotions act through the nervous system 
upon the various bodily organs. The face first 
and most naturally expresses the emotions. It 
does this involuntarily, and yet we may so train 
the countenance, may make the facial muscles 
and nerves so pliable and responsive, that the 
expression may be more prompt to voice, in its 
glow, the fervor of the emotions. 



132 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

One of the most efficient teachers of elo- 
cution makes it a prominent feature of his 
instruction to have the muscles and skin of the 
face made so flexible, so free and responsive, 
that what is read or spoken shall express itself 
involuntarily in the countenance. We have 
seen persons under such instruction who acquired 
ability to make not only the cheeks but the 
forehead radiant with emotion. 

There is direct physical connection between 
the emotions and the digestive organs. Many 
of the phenomenal cures reported as the result 
of mental or "Christian" science, are resultants 
of skilful use of the emotions upon those organs. 
People with great personal magnetism, either 
natural or acquired, will stimulate faith so as to 
get the thought entirely divorced from self, 
from the body. They will awaken hope which 
quickens every emotional avenue. They will 
quicken this into joy, or the exuberance of 
spirits. All this time the thought is kept away 
from self. Then, when the emotional power is 
at its height, it is suddenly turned back upon 
self with such a commanding tone as to make it 
a joyful servant, is concentrated upon the 



THE EMOTIONS. 



133 



stomach with the assurance that nothing is the 
matter with it, — that it only needs food and 
enough of it. There are well-authenticated 
cases where people's digestive organs, long 
deranged, had reached a condition that medi- 
cine offered no promise of relief, and this 
summary treatment produced definite and con- 
tinued relief. 

The heart, the lungs, and the kidneys are 
directly reachable by the emotions. 

It is a discredit to the science of medicine, 
philanthropy, and Christianity that beneficial 
influences of the emotions should have been so 
far left undeveloped that those who are no 
credit to Christianity, or are direct opponents 
thereof, can avail themselves of its power to our 
disadvantage. 

Those who under-estimate the importance of 
emotional self-control do themselves and those 
whom they influence a definite wrong. Even 
the injury that comes to people socially from ill 
manners, bred by lack of emotional balance, is 
greater than may be supposed. We all know 
those who, when asked a question, scratch their 
heads, shrug their shoulders, close their eyes, or 



134 METHODS AiVD PRIXCIPLES. 

do some other unmannerly thing, all from lack 
of emotional self-control. 

We know those who are always beating time 
with the foot, or tapping out a tune with the 
fingers on the slightest provocation, as though 
so full of music that they cannot control it. 
The fact is that such persons have not com- 
mand of their musicael motions, so to speak. 

Trained musicians, those who by voice or 
instrument thrill the world with cultured art, 
have such control of their musical emotions that 
they husband all that fervor for occasions when 
it will be effective. 

The entire physical system is largely under 
the sway of the emotions. All pleasurable 
emotions conserve physical energy, tend to 
restore health, and prolong life. 

Painful emotions, on the other hand antago- 
nize physical energy, tend to disease and death. 
There is no way in which to define either 
pleasure or pain. We know the emotions, but 
to state in words that which we know is, in this 
case, not easy. They are, in all senses, direct 
opposites. The one is headed toward life, the 
other toward death. 



THE EMOTIONS. 



135 



Human conduct is largely dependent upon 
the emotions. Pleasure stimulates us to phys- 
ical and mental activity. Pain tends to caution 
and inactivity. With a large portion of man- 
kind you can estimate their emotional nature 
in quality and quantity by their choices and 
conduct. 

Right conduct relies for constancy upon a 
properly adjusted emotional fervor. Content- 
ment and enjoyment in life depend in great 
measure upon the development and discipline of 
the emotions. 

Without the stimulus of emotion, man may be 
good in^a tame way. Without control of the 
emotions, he is a candidate for irretrievable ruin. 
Stimulated but unrestrained emotions rush 
those who began life with the best intentions, 
into drunkenness, licentiousness, skepticism, 
or infidelity. 

Excessive emotional natures need restraint. 
There is an exuberance of feeling which leads 
to an over-estimate of everything good or ill, to 
too great intensity in likes and dislikes. 

Erratic emotional natures need to be modi- 
fied. Many of the crooked, caustic, notional 



136 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

beings who afflict home, church, and society, 
are what they are from emotional deformities. 
The man with a hump-back, club-feet, or any 
other physical deformity is a lesser monstrosity 
than the man or woman whose emotional 
nature is deformed in such a way as to make 
him unreliable in friendship, fickle in interest, 
rasping in manner. 

Success in study is largely dependent upon 
the way in which the lesson, the teacher, and 
the surroundings appeal to the emotions. 

It is important to note the tendency of 
feelings, observing the class of influences that 
most readily affect them, and their effect upon 
the thought and conduct. 

While all natures need appropriate emotional 
development, those dull natures need to be 
specially stimulated. In all cases, however, 
excessive emotional stimulant is to be rigidly 
avoided. Pleasure results from certain ex- 
citants, and the unscientific instructor presses 
these supposed advantages beyond the proper 
limit, producing evil rather than good results. 
For instance, the teacher learns that he can 
give pleasure to his pupils by exciting their 



THE EMOTIONS. 



\ 

137 



love of rivalry through medals and prizes. He 
may intensify their zeal until he makes them 
emotionally miserable through envy and bitter- 
ness of feeling. He will, if not careful, cause 
them to carry this so far as to make them lose 
all love for study, making them envious of each 
other and suspicious of his fairness. All this 
may easily result from excessive emotional 
stimulant. 

Too long continuance of any pleasurable 
emotion is unfortunate, since, in the nature of a 
stimulant, its merit consists in its being fre- 
quently relieved, so that its good effects may be 
assimilated and matured. 

After each application of a stimulant there 
must be time given for the return of a perfectly 
natural condition, and fresh strength must be 
supplied for the stimulant to quicken. So long 
as the excitant calls into activity superabun- 
dant force that else would be unemployed, all is 
well ; but when it rallies to action forces that 
are needed in other departments, or whose 
time of action has not arrived, it is mischiev- 
ous. 

A tree, after a season's growth, sheds its 



138 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

leafage because the leaf -stems are no longer 
large enough for the enlarged branch, hence 
they are laid aside, and the branch seasons into 
its increased size, and firmly knits its fibre, and 
puts forth a wholly new set of leaves for a 
re-enlargement. By this process the tree 
grows. 

There is a phase of medical science that 
seeks to give, in most diseases, the least 
medicine that will stimulate healthy action, and 
then awaits the accomplishment of its effect 
before re-applying the remedy. 

Thus the emotional life, and all faculties of 
mind and heart dependent upon it, need to rest 
after every emotional stimulant, for its work to 
be accomplished and its results established in 
habitual activity. 

The sympathetic teacher errs when he ex- 
hausts his nervous energies in an attempt to 
hold the attention and interest of the pupils by 
incessant appeals to their emotional nature. If, 
in place of this, he would appeal to their 
feelings for a definite purpose, then rest himself, 
and study the effect of that exertion, his effort 
would go further, accomplish more, and he would 



THE EMOTIONS. 



139 



avoid exhaustion. The aim should be to so use 
appeals to pleasure as to put the entire system 
in a healthy, elastic state, prompting to the best 
activity. It wants to exert such influence over 
the other faculties that they shall work in full 
sympathy with the emotions, but not be depend- 
ent upon them. 

Those who depend upon their feelings to 
decide what they shall do, when they shall do it, 
and how long continue it, are inevitably 
unhappy and miserable most of their time. No 
business suits them, and, after the new is off, 
they do everything in a state of fretfulness, 
chafing under every requirement, rasped by 
their superiors, envious of their equals, jealous 
of their inferiors. They seek relief in change of 
occupation, always looking for something they* 
feel like doing. Each change makes content- 
ment and pleasure shorter-lived. 

Thus the undisciplined emotional nature is 
responsible for much of the shiftlessness and 
thriftlessness, intemperance 'and licentious- 
ness, homesickness and heartsickness of the 
world. 

It is the privilege, as well as duty of the 



140 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

Bible teacher to so use the Scripture remedies 
with psychological wisdom as to give balance 
and tone to the feelings that they may be 
restrained from doing evil and be made effec- 
tive for good. All this will help to furnish a 
better developed physical and mental nature 
in which to nurture the religious life. 

Erratic, unreliable, professed followers of 
Christ, who have at one time been sincere 
seekers after the assurance of forgiveness, but 
have never persisted in the performance of 
religious duties, are usually of that class who 
seek Heaven on their feelings. Those who run 
hither and thither after every fanatic, who 
incline to every peculiar theory for healing 
disease without science, who advocate every 
phase of philanthropy and reform that has no phil- 
osophic basis, advertise the fact that they have 
left their emotional faculties untrained. Those 
who adopt every new "ism" in theology, who 
never enjoy their religion except in a revival, are 
of the same unfortunate class of undirected and 
uncontrolled emotional natures. 

The Word of God, judiciously, intelligently 
applied, is the essence of virtue in balancing 



THE EMOTIONS. 



UI 



the emotions so as to stimulate every faculty 
of mind and heart. At the same time it tones 
down every excitable, fickle, clamorous emotion 
by harmonizing conflicting hopes and fears, 
doubts and aspirations. It does this through 
a restful confidence in and reliance upon the 
triune Deity for love, peace, and joy. The 
Bible and its truth may be so taught that 
nothing in earth can permanently go amiss with 
him who confides affectionately in God. It can 
give assurance that our Heavenly Father holds 
in his hands all possibilities of matter and 
mind. It can inspire us to seek and hope for 
perfect emotional satisfaction through the truth 
of God and its Author. 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 



" We pine for kindred natures 
To mingle with our own." 

— Mrs. Hemans. 
" A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one." — Carlyle. 
" The secrets of life are not shown except to sympathy and like- 
ness." — George Eliot. 

" The craving for sympathy is the common boundary-line between 
joy and sorrow." — Hare. 

" Sympathy is especially a Christian's duty." — Spurgeon. 
" Those who would make us feel must feel themselves." 

— Churchill. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 

« 

YMPATHY leads all the beneficent 
emotions as a power in the hands of the 
teacher. There is no sphere in life in 
which one may not be more effective in steady- 
ing the wayward, in comforting the sorrowful, 
in winning souls to permanent love for the Lord 
and constancy in his service by judicious, fer- 
vent use of the sympathetic emotions. 

There is a physical sympathy which is almost, 
purely mechanical and involuntary. Evidence 
of this may be seen in a public audience, where 
one has a cough and all about desire to cough 
from sympathy. Laughter and yawning ex- 
hibit the same physical tendency. 

It is not for display merely that soldiers are 
trained to keep step, but there is physical gain, 
— a certain added energy in having a battalion 
step in unison. A thousand men will endanger 

i45 




I46 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

a bridge less by walking out of step than five 
hundred will that keep step. When any num- 
ber of people unite in a common physical move- 
ment, each puts a certain personality into it, and 
does it better and with more force than he 
would alone. Harmony is the essence of power 
as well as beauty. 

Intellectually there is keener sympathy than 
physically. Those accustomed to address pub- 
lic audiences appreciate this. One or two 
strong minds in full sympathy with the speaker 
exert a magnetic influence, carrying conviction 
with their unvoiced intellectual loyalty. Con- 
trariwise, a doubter or disbeliever can, without 
paying a word, create a strong intellectual oppo- 
sition. Few characteristics of a speaker are so 
important as skill in bringing an audience into 
sympathy with his thought. Speakers who 
have a reputation for . tact never enter upon 
their theme seriously until they have tested 
their audience with some experimental remark 
to assure themselves that they have the sympa- 
thy of their hearers. By these artful introduc- 
tions speakers place their audiences in an inten- 
sified, sympathetic condition. Edward Everett 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 



1 47 



was careful to have everything adjusted before 
he began an oration, that he might with great- 
est ease secure sympathy. A jury, unless it 
has one or two strong characters on it, has i:s 
judgment swayed very largely by the sympathy 
of the audience. Skilful lawyers advise their 
clients to have present as many friends of strong 
intellectual power as they can, for the direct 
benefit of a keen, sympathetic, intellectual at- 
mosphere. 

Mozart was so dependent upon sympathy that 
he could neither compose nor execute his mu- 
sical compositions unless conscious that he was 
appreciated, or would be, by those to whom he 
was appealing. 

Emotional sympathy is even more important. 
In the normal condition man reflects the feel- 
ings of others. The frolic or pain of animals 
sways our emotions when the mind is inactive. 

When several pianos are in an uncarpeted 
room, if a given note be struck, that string will 
vibrate perceptibly in all the other instruments. 
Metallic picture-cords sometimes vibrate audibly 
when they chance to be attuned to a given key. 
The human heart is infinitely sensitive to the 
vibrations of others' joys and sorrows. 



148 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



The will has its laws of sympathy as well as 
the physical, intellectual, and emotional natures. 
When we make no special effort to direct the 
thoughts and feelings, we reflect the decisions 
of those about us and act from sympathy with 
them. 

This analysis of the departments of sympathy 
culminating in the influence it has over our 
choice, shows how important an element it is 
in human society. It enters into the feelings of 
others, and acts upon them as though they were 
our own. It is a universal force and must be 
properly provided for. 

Not all use this power for the good of their 
fellow men. It is, relatively, as great a source 
of evil as of good. It is the strongest social 
force employed in wrecking virtue or debasing 
with intemperance. A young person whose 
sympathies are not given a virtuous, ennobling 
tendency is a candidate for the malarial influ- 
ence of evil. 

Those amusements upon which the church 
looks suspiciously have their mischievous ten- 
dency in this channel. Why does the church 
frown upon dancing, such a beautiful exercise, 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 1 49 



teaching grace of movement and social eti- 
quette; upon the theatre, that tones up elo- 
cution, and emphasizes, oft-times, moral virtues ? 
They, and kindred amusements, misdirect the 
sympathies. They provide the young with the 
wrong conditions. A person of strong will, or 
one who is egotistical or selfish, may be safe, but 
the great majority take serious risks. 

If a jury sitting in judgment upon a man's 
life, with a discreet judge to preside, is liable 
to be affected by the sympathetic atmosphere 
of the court-room, how much more a bevy of 
lads and lassies, with no wise monitor. The 
ball-room appeals to the physical sympathies by 
whirling the nerves and the physical being into 
a state of unnatural excitement. 

There is no premium on intellectual activity, 
but he who has given most attention to the 
physical graces with the fervor and glow 
acccompanying them is the most commanding 
in his influence over the sympathies. The 
conditions are ripe, and if there be one person 
who is not virtuous, whose mind runs in 
unchaste lines, whose emotions are^ wronsr, his 
presence instinctively plays upon the sympathies 
of the impressible company. 



150 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

In the theatre the auditor is passive, recep- 
tive, the mind and the emotions are relaxed. 
The will is free and easy. If, in a congregation 
or lyceum audience, one person who disbelieves 
can exert a perceptible prejudicial influence, 
what can be expected under the conditions 
existing in the theatre ? If there be any 
considerable number present whose moral char- 
acter is suspicious, whose thought is not 
elevating, their influence upon others will be 
debasing, would be if the same number, of the 
same character, were together, even in a 
church. If the scenery and costumes are 
questionably suggestive, if the character of the 
actors is questionable, then there is a circuit of 
most unfortunate conditions. Because a few 
strong-minded, self-willed people can take their 
recreation this way, is no reason others should 
tempt their sympathies. People of unformed 
characters certainly have no right to do 
so. " Evil communications corrupt good man- 
ners." 

The very word " amusement" is prejudicial, 
testifying against itself. It appeals to selfish- 
ness. It offers to amuse those who wish to be 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPA THY. 1 5 I 

thus catered to. Its object is to lull the 
faculties, prevent reflection, banish memories. 
" Entertainment " is better, because it indicates 
a willingness to enter into the activities. It 
awakens the mind, arouses the sensibilities. 
Recreation seeks a mere temporary suspension 
of activities preparatory to better labor. It is a 
cessation of activities for a purpose. It keeps 
the aim up to its old standard. It consents to 
relaxation, but not to diversion. 

In every employment, whether of vocation or 
avocation, we need to have the thought sharply 
on the sympathies, their susceptibility, the 
quality and strength of the modifying influences. 
On this ground the church is a profitable place 
for any one to be. If no word be remembered, 
if no thought attach itself to the mind, positive 
benefit may accrue. The sermon, the Scrip- 
ture, the prayer, and the hymns, one or all, 
exert a healthful influence through the sympa- 
thies. The majority of those present are there 
for good. They say a mental " Amen " to 
every good thought. They regret all lapses in 
the past. They resolve to be more correct and 
fervent in the future. They are hopeful and 



152 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



inspiring. Thus each finds himself in the best 
possible receptive attitude, and all the active 
forces are of a desirable quality. There is a 
philosophic argument for keeping the best 
company, and young people, especially, should 
be made to understand this philosophy. 

There is a distinction between passive and 
active sympathy. The former merely feels with 
another. It is a contagious emotion, absorbing 
his mental state, reflecting his condition, vibrat- 
ing with his sensibilities. Active sympathy 
feels for and acts with another, anticipating and 
endeavoring to satisfy his necessities. It enters 
into hearty alliance as a clarifying, rectifying, 
modifying force. 

There is variety in sympathy. Sorrow, pain, 
affliction, and adversity call forth a quality of 
sympathy quite in contrast with that called 
for by pleasure, prosperity, and joy. Few 
fail of a tender sensibility when their fellow 
men, or even animals, suffer. It is exceptional 
that one hesitates to feel or express sorrow 
even when an enemy suffers. But when people 
are successful, circumstances change. The hu- 
man heart is predisposed to envy under such 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPA THY. I 5 3 

conditions. John the Baptist reached a high 
plane of spiritual self-command when he could 
say with apparent relish, " He must increase, 
but I must decrease." 

To rejoice with those who rejoice is a more 
refined emotion than to weep with those who 
weep, and prepares for the highest grade of 
sympathy with those in need. It indicates a 
more signal victory over our rebellious, jealous, 
envious natures. 

We mistake seriously when we think of sym- 
pathy as merely interest in those who are af- 
flicted, sorrowful, and suffering. Too many 
thus confine their thought to that phase of it 
which weights us with others' woes, which leads 
the heart to ache because other hearts ache. 
We must remember, as we have remarked, that 
it is in some respects a better, keener phase 
which blends ourselves with others in their in- 
terests, whether they be joyful or sorrowful. 

The organ has its couplers by which the va- 
rious banks of keys and departments may be 
connected. It is the work of a moment to draw 
the register, after which the touching of a pedal- 
note gives that note in the great organ, and in 



154 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

the swell also. Sympathy is such a coupling in 
human minds and human interests. 

There is a closeness of interest between 
minds that are in sympathy that merges them 
in a common power. When officers, teachers, 
and scholars have such sympathy, they will learn 
more with less friction than they otherwise 
will. If you will try to sound a given note un- 
aided, and will then sit before an expert elocu- 
tionist or musician, and sound it with him, you 
will find that his voice rounds out and fills out 
yours ; you can sound the note much easier, 
and it will be richer and more resonant. It is, 
as it were, an alliance of voices, which, without 
effort, melodizes both. Thus, people who are 
mutually sympathetic round out each other's 
experiences and characters. 

The instinctive, momentary, sympathetic feel- 
ing for one in sorrow or joy has little virtue in 
it. It signifies nothing of moral value unless it 
abides with us. It must represent our pain or 
pleasure. It must affect and direct our will as 
well as our emotion. The measure of virtue 
in our sympathy is our activity in relieving pain 
or augmenting pleasure. We test sympathy 
through the activity in which it eventuates. 



PHIL OS PHY OF S YMPA THY. 1 5 5 

Sympathy for which one has to ask is never 
satisfactory. We need, therefore, to train our- 
selves in the habit of appreciative attention to 
the slightest indications of the unvoiced emo- 
tions of others. 

This sympathy, however spontaneous it may 
appear, needs cultivation. There are many ways 
in which it may be abused. For instance, the 
mental phenomenon known as mesmeric sleep 
is a simple device by which one acquires the art 
of practically closing all avenues of thought 
and emotion but one, concentrating all the sen- 
sibilities on that one line of sympathy with 
some one person, through memory or imagi- 
nation. Such an act throws innumerable pos- 
sibilities into one channel. Under these condi- 
tions the sympathies are profuse and intense, 
but unbalanced and unreliable. This shows 
the possibilities of misuse of this faculty. 

In the best sense, sympathy is one of the 
higher phases of the emotional life, and increases 
strength and improves the quality the higher 
the grade of intellect. There is a popular sen- 
timent which discounts this claim. There is a 
certain reserve, dignity, unapproachableness in 



156 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

some prominent intellectual characters that has 
given the impression that the keener the intel- 
lectual training the lower and less responsive the 
sympathy. This merely proves the possibility 
and shows the danger of developing the intellect 
away from the sympathy. It does not prove 
that such development is natural. It indicates 
lack of mental poise, however acute the 
thought, if the sympathy wanes as mental 
culture increases. 

Awakening the senses awakens the sympa- 
thies. Appeals to the lower range of sensibili- 
ties arouse the. sympathies that tend wrongfully, 
while those which quicken the finer sensibilities 
develop the better sympathies. This explains 
the availability of the song-service in revivals. 
Those songs that appeal to a low range of emo- 
tions frequently stimulate a false hope in Christ 
and produce erratic disciples. It is better to 
use those nobler hymns, those standard melo- 
dies that have a true sentiment, that teach the 
higher range of sympathies. 

Whoever is unduly occupied with his own 
affairs shuts out the experiences of others, so 
that he cannot receive or reflect them, cannot 
benefit or be benefited by them. 



PHILOSOPHY OP SYMPATHY. 1 57 

Whoever demands that others come to his 
level, who views everything from his own stand- 
point, loses the comfort of sympathy or the 
power to comfort through it. Such a tendency 
develops the selfish, egotistical, unshareable ele- 
ments in our nature. Whoever enjoys rivalry 
and competition, through his energies, wherever 
there is opportunity to excel, simply from love 
of victory, soon precludes the possibility of 
being genuinely sympathetic with men in their 
need. 

The oyster builds his shell so that the inside 
is smooth as pearl, but the outside is rough, 
coarse, unsightly, unattractive. Thus non- 
sympathetic people seem to care only for pol- 
ishing up circumstances and interests that come 
in contact with themselves, and by which they 
profit. It is a short-sighted policy. It is better 
every way to know by experience, in sympathy 
as well as in other things, that it is more blessed 
to give than to receive. It pays to smooth that 
which chafes others as well as ourselves. 

Whoever trains himself by habit to criticise 
others loses the power to benefit himself or 
others through sympathy. Such an attitude of 



158 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



mind leads one to observe the manner, action, 
and speech with a view to discovering subjects 
for unfavorable comment, and he will make his 
estimate upon what he expected to see, and will 
be inclined to think he saw it even though he 
did not. The motive with which we look into 
others' actions largely determines what we see 
there. 

" Do not look for wrong and evil — 
You will find them if you do ; 

" Look for goodness, look for gladness, 
You will meet them all the while ; 
If you bring a smiling visage 
To the glass, you meet a smile.*' 

Much depends upon the class of men and 
influences with which we are in sympathy. We 
should aim to be in personal sympathy with the 
best men in our circle of acquaintances, in our 
nation, in our age, the best men in history. 

Society, politics, theology, and the church 
itself, are always liable to be in commotion. 
Parties arise, issues are made, and much de- 
pends upon our" attitude in such emergencies. 
It is of the highest importance that we secure 
a reputation for being uniformly in sympathy 
with those men and measures which represent 
the most conscience and common sense. 



PHILOSOPHY OF SYMPATHY. 



l S9 



It is well to emphasize that phase of Chris- 
tianity which consists in being actively in 
sympathy with the needs of humanity ; with the 
requirements of God's word in repentance, and 
all moral virtues ; with all the privileges it offers 
through prayer, faith, and hope ; with the per- 
sonal Christ through confidential, experimental 
relations with him: with the Holy Spirit, in all 
his tender, comforting, inspiring ministration. 
That sympathy into which Christian experience 
introduces us is one of the most sacred emotions 
of the human heart. 

Whoever wields the keenest, most judicious, 
sympathetic power will, other things being 
equal, most effectively and permanently mould 
character. He who commands the resources of 
Divine truth, the melody of Scripture texts, the 
enkindling fervor of the Holy Spirit, the compas- 
sionate love of Christ, has influences to awaken 
sympathy of the highest order. With this priv- 
ilege comes corresponding responsibility. 

According to the latest and most approved 
science, the teacher of deaf mutes, when she 
wishes the earless, voiceless child to read words 
from the lips of others, mechanically artic- 



l60 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



ulating the response, takes both the child's 
hands in her own, placing them upon either side 
of her body where the vibrations are most 
distinct, pressing them gently while speaking 
slowly, resonantly, that the sensitive touch of 
the child may aid in reading the vocal utter- 
ances of the lips through her eloquent form 
that vibrates rhythmically with her unheard 
voice. 

Thus the Sunday-school teacher who adds to 
other qualities as an instructor that of sympa- 
thy will impart the thrill of Christian life and 
love from his vibrant life of truth as it is in 
Christ. He must remember to teach by precept 
as well as example, that the pupils whom he 
sends forth into life may perpetuate his power 
through the sympathies of mankind. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 



" What ardently we wish we soon believe." — Young. 
" Who never doubted, never half believed." — Bailey. 

" Uncertain ways unsafest are." — Denham. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 

— Acts 16 : 31. 
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul." 

— Emerson. 

When in God thou believest, near God thou wilt certainly be." 

— Leland. 

The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness." 

— Froude. 

Doubt indulged soon becomes doubt realized." — Havergal. 



IX. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 

HE teacher of God's Word has the 
privilege and the duty of anchoring the 
mind and heart of humanity in all that 
is true and noble, hopeful and helpful, through 
an intelligent, restful belief in that which is 
eternal in its inspirations and rewards. 

Anti-Christian writers, by their indifference 
to the claims of Christian truth, exert a disas- 
trous influence upon many thoughtful youth 
who go from our instruction into the higher 
institutions of learning, or become readers of a 
class of aristocratic periodicals. The corrective 
of this impulse to doubt is such a judicious 
development of the art of believing, as shall 
enable the mind to weigh intelligently, honestly, 
and devoutly all literary criticism. 

Discrimination in the use of terms is nowhere 
more vital than in estimating the relative merit 

163 



164 



METHODS AXD PRINCIPLES. 



and demerit of skeptical and devout views of 
human tendency and need, and divine power 
and truth. 

Belief is prompt assent to or acceptance of 
that which we do not know with absolute cer- 
tainty. 

If we are absolutely certain that a fact is 
established or a proposition truthful from per- 
sonal observation, experiment, or experience, 
then it is knowledge or belief crystallized. 

There is a moral certainty in belief. In a 
sense, we are as sure that our belief is correct 
as of many things that we know by observation. 
I know 7 that every object that I have ever seen, 
unsupported, falls to the earth. I believe that 
every object that is not properly supported will 
fall. I have no absolute knowledge that the 
apples that grow next year will fall to the 
ground if not otherwise gathered, but my belief 
that they will is as real and satisfactory to me 
as my knowledge, derived from the observations 
of this year. 

When properly formed, belief is as reliable as 
knowledge, but it is radically different, and the 
distinction must not be lost sight of. Failure 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 



I6> 



to appreciate this has led to serious mischief in 
many an experience. 

It is a favorite device of those who would 
wreck the faith of humanity, to frighten men 
away from their belief because they are not 
absolutely certain of the truth which they 
believe. The man who understands what belief 
is, and appreciates that he rests it upon that 
which he absolutely knows, can meet all cap- 
tious criticism as calmly as he would a denial 
that the sun will rise to-morrow — speaking 
after the manner of man — because we do not 
know that it will, we merely believe it. 

It is also claimed by some anti-Christian men 
that it is a virtue not to give ready assent. 
This is the test : If we hesitate or waver, we do 
not believe. We may conclude or estimate that 
a thing is true after careful deliberation, but 
we only believe that which we assent to 
promptly. 

He 'who knows his rights and privileges in 
belief occupies the same vantage ground as a 
man of business who is conversant with the 
written and unwritten laws that regulate mer- 
cantile affairs. There is no more reason why 



1 66 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

men should be imposed upon by the skeptic's 
sophistry than by a quack in medicine or a 
trickster in trade. 

Belief makes all knowledge available. There 
is scarcely a thing which we know, that can be 
applied by us without belief. The doing of 
anything requires the projection of that which 
we know into the future, and that involves 
belief. 

Science, art, and mechanics rest upon belief 
in the principles and laws of matter and force. 
Beyond the known is much to which we give 
prompt assent, and without which belief we 
could not progress in investigation or experi- 
ment. 

Commercial and social relations have their 
security in belief in man, in his general loyalty 
to the principles of personal and public integrity 
and virtue. 

Religion has as many known facts as its com- 
panions. It is not, as some would have us 
think, at a disadvantage in this regard. Man's 
necessities are known, his experiences are defi- 
nite. The benefits of his prayers, faith, love, 
and worship, are matters of knowledge. Like all 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 67 

science, art, trade, and society, religion has its 
principles and laws to which the mind instinct- 
ively renders prompt assent. The belief of its 
votaries is as tangible and satisfactory, to say 
the least, as the belief of any other class of men 
in any department of life. 

Belief is the normal attitude of the mind. We 
promptly accept the permanency of matter, 
constancy of force, and sincerity of man until 
we have experience with nature and life. There 
is no law, probably, so thoroughly established 
but that it has apparent exceptions sufficient to 
cause the child to hesitate in his loyalty, and 
this wavering condition of mind is doubt. 

One who had never seen water except as a 
liquid, and had never heard of it in any other 
state, would believe that it is always thus. But 
on going to a climate in which it freezes, he 
would know that it is sometimes a solid, and all 
his belief concerning it would be shaken. 

There are men, even preachers, among the 
negroes and mountain white people of the 
South who sincerely believe the earth to be flat 
and immovable until they are convinced that it 
is spheroidal, and both rotates and revolves. 



1 68 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

This conviction destroys their former belief, and 
leads them to doubt the constancy of nature. 

The child promptly accepts the fact of his 
mother's love because she feeds, cares for, and 
comforts him. His belief in her is instinctive 
until she declines to give him something that 
he desires ; then he questions her love. He also 
accepts the fact of his father's love until he pun- 
ishes him, and then the child challenges the 
father's claim. Doubt is the suspense of belief 
caused by discordant experiences. 

So long as life moves in harmony with un- 
questioned belief all goes well ; but one counter 
experience after nineteen favorable ones causes 
us to hesitate, and a repetition of this counter- 
experience leads us to readjust our theory; and 
this unsettled state of mind, in which we are 
uncertain whether we believe or not, is doubt. 

Doubt is inevitable when circumstances favor. 
Indeed, it is a testimony, with some limitations, 
to a sound, healthy mind. The man who has 
never doubted anything may well question his 
own intelligence. Every belief has, practically, 
its period of doubt, which is not of necessity 
harmful. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 69 

The word doubt has been needlessly degraded. 
In its best sense it is like the soil in springtime, 
when it is being mellowed from frozen earth in 
preparation to germinate seed and be the depos- 
itory of life. Under proper conditions, doubt is 
merely the pubescent state of belief. 

It should be so utilized as to be a permanent 
assistance to belief. It needs to be used in tem- 
pering the belief to such elasticity that it will 
spring back from doubt into normal, confiding 
belief. The child who learns that the mother 
withheld the luxury for which he teased, to pre- 
vent pain and sickness, has ever after a higher 
type of belief in her love, though he may have 
doubted it when his wish was refused. 

The father who hesitates to discipline his 
child, from fear that he will doubt his love, 
entirely mistakes the mission of doubt ; he should 
even welcome the doubt, if in this way only he 
can be led to see the greater scope of his father's 
love. 

The smith tempers steel to great elasticity by 
first heating it, and then dipping in water for an 
instant, repeating the process until it is properly 
tempered. If, however, he should plunge it in 



jyo METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

the water and leave it there, it would become 
too brittle for service. The scientific explana- 
tion seems to be that the gradual process gives 
the particles ability to cohere tenaciously to 
those on all sides. 

So doubt, rightly used, seems to inspire us to 
keener intelligence in our search for the rela- 
tions and foundations of our belief, and to more 
tenacious loyalty to beliefs that have been duly 
tempered. In this sense, "Who never doubted, 
never half believed." 

"There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds." 

If we allow doubt to disintegrate our habit of 
belief, it will destroy all elasticity, and thus 
become disbelief. 

Unbelief is doubt habituated. Disbelief is 
doubt enthroned. Unbelief neglects to accept 
truth ; disbelief refuses to accept it. Disbelief 
is positive, aggressive, and denies belief. It is 
jealous of its authority, and will not be ap- 
proached by any argument or evidence. 

Doubt may be wise, unbelief may be merely 
heedless, but disbelief is normally a vicious state 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF, 



171 



of mind. Doubt may lead to independence, un- 
belief may become remonstrance, disbelief is re- 
bellion. 

Disbelief leads to faintheartedness, apprehen- 
sion of danger, fear of evil, alarm at every unex- 
pected occurrence. 

Despondency is a fruit of disbelief. It is 
permanent discouragement, and leads to the 
abandonment of effort to better our condition. 
It settles down to the work of life as to the 
inevitable, without heart. It is the end of 
intellectual activity, and may, perhaps, not in- 
appropriately be styled the extreme of the evil 
of disbelief on the intellectual side of our 
being. 

Despair is the extreme of the evil of disbelief 
from the emotional side. It is the height of 
horror, and bids farewell to hope and every 
comforting emotion. It companions with fear 
and remorse, and revels with them. 

" Of comfort no man speak : 
Let 's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs." 

This is the delirium tremens of the emotional 
life, brought on by the intoxication of disbelief 
when we drink overmuch of its evil. 



172 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

* 

Desperation is the extreme of the evil of 
disbelief on the volitional side of our being. It 
is disbelief despotically enthroned in the will, 
controlling the choices for its purpose, making 
the will do the bidding of despondency and 
despair. 

" O mischief ! thou art swift 
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men." 

The Sunday-school has not done its work 
until it has clearly taught the relation of doubt, 
unbelief, and disbelief, emphasizing the ten- 
dency of the latter, not fanatically, not as 
though its extremes were sure to follow, but as 
bearing a similar relation to disbelief that drunk- 
enness bears to moderate drinking. Without 
placing involuntary doubt in a false position, we 
must arraign disbelief as a positive evil, person- 
ally, socially, and religiously. 

Skepticism is a theological term whose full 
significance seems not to have been settled. It 
is used by different apparent authorities as 
referring to any one of the three states of mind, 
doubt, unbelief, or disbelief, and should be 
given the relative importance of the word for 
which it is used. Because of its vagueness, it 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 173 

is better to use one of the three terms whose 
significance is settled. 

Any Christian leader, in pulpit or prayer- 
room, in the Sunday-school or home, who merely 
divides humanity into believers and unbelievers, 
who classes all who do not accept Christ as a 
personal leader in the same great company of 
sinners, takes a responsibility that may well 
cause him to shudder. To treat a doubter as 
though he were a disbeliever is to take the risk 
of outraging his better nature. 

Disbelievers are more rare than we think. 
Our standard of profession and confession is not 
so perfected as to warrant any man in treating 
those who do not answer his interrogation as 
though he were a disbeliever. The very atmos- 
phere has more faith in it than we give credit 
for. With all the laxity and heedlessness, with 
all the irreverence there is about us, there is not 
so much of disbelief after all. Frances Power 
Cobbe, in a recent number of the Contemporary 
Review, in speaking of the fact that the nearest 
approach to an atheist that we can produce is 
really no atheists at all, says, they "are no more 
fair samples of the outcome of atheism than a 



174 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

little party of English youths who had lived for 
a few years in Central Africa would be samples 
of negroes. It would take several thousand 
years to make a full-blooded atheist out of the 
scion of forty generations of Christians. Our 
whole mental constitutions have been built up 
on the food of religious ideas. A man on a 
mountain-top might as well resolve not to 
breathe the ozone in the air, as to live in the 
intellectual atmosphere of England and inhale 
no Christianity." Disbelief in a thorough 
Christian community is a difficult thing to ma- 
ture. There is doubt, there is unbelief. There 
is danger of all the consequences we have been 
considering. We want to learn from Christ the 
art of winning the human mind and heart from 
doubt and unbelief to loyalty and allegiance. 

Belief in its better phases is buoyant. As 
the bird fills its very bones with the air through 
which it flies, to give buoyancy to the body, so 
belief permeates the entire being, thrilling us 
with confidence in everything in earth and 
Heaven that God uses and would have us use. 
As the plumage of the bird partakes of the col- 
ors of the rainbow and the sunset, so, through 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 75 

belief, we may give to our earthly life the hue 
and tint of Heaven itself. 

We should be honest with ourselves and our 
pupils, and admit that belief does not always 
tend to virtuous states of mind. We attempt 
too much when we assume to defend belief in 
all its phases and possibilities. It is too vast a 
subject, and ranges down the scale as well as 
up. 

Credulity accepts promptly and with ' im- 
plicit confidence whatever appeals to our belief. 
The more improbable it is, the more enthusiasti- 
cally it is believed. Gladstone speaks of cre- 
dulity as the rival folly of excessive skepticism. 
It always brings sincere, intelligent belief into 
disrepute. Credulity, encouraged, leads to su- 
perstition on the one hand, or fanaticism on the 
other. 

Superstition is the exercise of credulity along 
sombre lines. It leads to uncomfortable ima- 
ginings, weak fears, dark forebodings. It is 
allied with fatality. It is sordid, earthy, barbar- 
ous in its nature. It is antagonistic to intelli- 
gence, true virtue, and even civilization itself. It 
tends to superstitious reverence for signs and 



176 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

tr.aditions, becoming in that way an almost 
criminal abuse of the privilege of believing. 

The superstition in which we were brought 
up is said never to lose its power over us, even 
after we understand it. This is not strictly 
true, but it requires an immense waste of nerve 
energy and will power to rid ourselves of its 
grip. There are more than we suspect, among 
Christians even, who regard with more or less 
favor signs which have come down the genera- 
tions. This exhibits the tenacity with which 
heathen idolatry clings to civilized life. Legiti- 
mate belief is discounted so long as those who 
exercise it dishonor God by suspecting him of 
being guilty of dealing with men, individually 
or collectively, by the whims of animals, by 
household accidents, or the chance of times or 
seasons. So long as God has all the resources 
of earth and Heaven through which to work, so 
long as He can speak directly to the human 
soul in mind or heart, so long as His Word 
speaks to the intellect and conscience of man- 
kind, it is sacrilegious to study " signs " of com- 
ing mischief. 

Fanaticism is an equally serious possibility in 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. If? 



the development of credulity, and is its aggres- 
sive tendency. It is self-confident assurance that 
we may rush madly into any course in which, in 
a high state of excitement, we believe, without 
regard to consequences. It leads to a convic- 
tion that we have a direct Divine guidance, 
which exempts us from all caution. 

It regards expediency as a crime. To reason 
is akin to blasphemy, with the fanatic. The 
more solitary the believer in his fanaticism, the 
more certain he is that he is right. If he can 
only feel sure that there is not another person 
on earth who thinks as he does, his bliss is com- 
plete, as he abuses that glorious sentence, " One 
with God is a majority." There is no crime 
that fanaticism does not magnify into a vir- 
tue. 

We cannot be too careful to disabuse the 
public mind of the impression that credulity, 
superstition, and fanaticism are the legitimate 
fruits of belief; neither can we be too definite 
in teaching youth that to it, weak, dangerous, 
and sometimes sinful tendencies may be given. 

Expectant attention is another phase of belief 
to which we need to give thought. It is a term 



1/8 METHODS AXD PRIXCIPLES. 



covering table-tipping, planchette, and kindred 
phenomena. It is called expectant attention 
because the whole mind is so possessed with the 
idea that a certain action will take place, and is 
"so eagerly directed towards the indications of 
its occurrence " with such emotional excitement 
as to produce, through involuntary muscular 
movement, the things they expect. The success 
of all the experiments here indicated require 
absolute faith and accompanying attention. 

Dr. W. B. Carpenter has given special thought 
to these investigations, and his illustrations are 
invaluable aids. 

It is a fact that some people with sufficient 
belief and power of attention can hold a ring 
suspended from the end of the finger near a 
glass tumbler, and have it swing against the 
tumbler until it has struck the hour of day. 
This has usually been accounted for as the 
work of "spirits," or supernatural influence. 
When the performer is ignorant of the hour 
it will never strike the hour. It is further 
noticeable that while in America it would strike 
three in the afternoon, in Italy it would strike 
fifteen according to the custom of the people. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 179 

There is no success unless the eye is fixed on 
the ring. It will not strike the glass with 
such regularity if the eyes are turned away. It 
requires belief, attention, and visual sense com- 
bined. 

The turning of a hazel-fork when firmly held 
in both hands, as used in some country towns 
to point out the whereabouts of springs of wa- 
ter, is but another illustration of such belief or 
expectant attention. It will go up or down 
according to the way in which it is held : up, if 
the hands are nearer than the natural position 
of the forks ; down, if farther apart. They will 
eventually move if we stand still as well as if 
we moved in search of water, and it will move 
if we fix our attention sharply enough to act 
spasmodically upon the muscles, even though 
we try to exert the will to prevent its moving. 
If a person in whose hands it works well will 
cross a field ten times, it will not turn in the 
same place at different times, especially if he 
vary his gait. This shows that it is in the man, 
and not in the "springs" of water. 

Table-tipping, turning, etc., is the same thing. - 
It results from the belief and attention of those 



l8o METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



taking part in it, operating spasmodically, but 
unconsciously, to them, through the muscles. 
We have not space, neither is it our purpose, 
to detail the experiment by which this can be 
clearly shown. The writing of plancJiette is 
due to the same phase of belief or expectancy, 
assisted by intense attention and sight. If the - 
operator be blindfolded, the instrument will not 
work. 

We may admit that all these vicious phases 
of life and action, — credulity, superstition, fa- 
naticism, and expectant attention, — are species 
of belief, and gain by the admission. They may 
even have their attractions and yet not be dan- 
gerous, if we teach what they really are in their 
tendency. 

There are serpents that are beautifully, ex- 
quisitely colored, and yet the moment that we 
see one to be a serpent it has no attractiveness. 
So we must show the demoralizing tendency of 
credulity, the enervating character of supersti- 
tion, the recklessness of fanaticism, the serpen- 
tine nature of those "marvellous" performances 
through expectant attention, which is credulity 
gone mad, with method in its madness. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. l8l 



There are, however, distinctive beneficial 
phases of belief which are the source of com- 
fort, inspiration, peace, and joy. We mention 
some of these. 

Belief, we repeat, is prompt assent to, or ac- 
ceptance of, that which we do not know with 
absolute certainty. 

Expectancy is anticipation of future good, 
with sufficient reason for such an attitude of the 
mind. In belief there is necessarily no element 
of futurity. It has no regard to consequences. 
Belief simply takes what is absolutely known 
and applies such principles as are reliable, and 
then accepts as true that which known facts 
under these fixed principles indicate. When 
we add a new element we advance a step and 
give a relish to our belief, and it becomes ex- 
pectancy. 

There is little liability that men of intelli- 
gence and caution will err much in their belief, 
but in their expectations the danger increases. 
Our wishes are liable to modify our expectation. 
We shall gain something in the clearness of 
this mental condition if we test it carefully. 

Reliance is the confident resting of the mind 



1 82 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



upon such expectancy, satisfied, intellectually 
and emotionally, that it will bring us, through 
our active co-operation, that which we need. 
Expectancy makes us confident of the future ; 
reliance links the present to the future and gives 
contentment now. This is akin to that which 
is spoken of as trust, but that word has such 
varied significance that it may as well be ig- 
nored in a series of definitions like these. 

FaitJi, Christian faith, is belief developed into 
expectancy and reliance through affectionate, 
personal affiliation with Christ. 

" Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death, 
To break the shock blind nature cannot shun, 
And lands thought smoothly on the farther shore." 

— Young. 

" That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." 

" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
things not seen." 

" For by grace ye are saved through faith ; and that not of 
yourselves : it is the gift of God." 

Hope, Christian hope, is confident anticipa- 
tion of that which, in our best frame of mind, we 
most desire. It is expectancy at its height. It 
is its choicest, best distilled possibilities. 

" The most vital movement mortals feel, 
Is hope, the balm and life-blood of the soul." 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 



183 



" Hope springs exultant on triumphant wing." 
" Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure 
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail." 

— Heb. 6:19. 

Peace, Christian peace, is tranquil repose 
through faith and hope, regardless of the dis- 
turbances which would otherwise annoy. Rus- 
kin says people are always expecting to get 
peace in Heaven, but that whatever peace they 
get there will be ready-made ; that whatever of 
peace they can be blessed for must be on earth 
here. Life is scarcely worth the living that is 
not blessed with the power and privilege of 
peace, and it can only come as a fruit of belief. 

" The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that 
make peace." 

" Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on thee." — Is. 26 : 3. 

" The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." — Phil. 4 : 7. 

Joy, Christian joy, is the culmination of all the 
beneficent effects of belief in emotional exhila- 
ration. 

" Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous : and shout 
for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." — Ps. 32 : n. 
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice." 

Phil. 3:1. 



1 84 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

Psychologists differ in their assignment of a 
home for belief. Some make it a child of the 
intellect, others of the emotions, and still others 
of the will. Each advocate makes so good a 
case for his theory that we incline to compound 
them, and make it an intellectual, emotional, 
and volitional activity. In no other way do we 
get a well-balanced view of it. Those who 
accept either limited view soon find themselves 
in difficulty. An intellectual belief, merely, is 
artistic, logical, serene, but is not fervent, 
touches no one, affects nothing in action. An 
emotional belief, merely, is aesthetic, fervid, 
ardent, but it is not logical, is not anchored in 
reason. It is more an instinct than a judgment. 
A volitional belief is ethical and determines 
results, it regulates the conduct by the principles 
of right and wrong. But it has no foundation 
judgment for its actions. It may not satisfy the 
theorists so well, but there is admirable psycho- 
logical authority for defining and classifying belief 
as we have done, making it intelligent, emo- 
tional, and volitional. 

Reasoning necessitates belief as one of its 
elements. In inductive reasoning, which passes 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 85 



from particulars to a general truth, belief plays 
an active part. We know the particulars, 
we believe the general truth. For instance, we 
know that every unsupported thing that we have 
seen falls to the ground, and we draw the 
general conclusion or form the belief that the 
earth attracts all bodies to itself. We afterwards 
observe that balloons do not fall, and our belief 
is disturbed by doubt. But if we study these 
exceptions that have caused us to doubt, we 
learn that it is the earth's attraction for the 
weightier air that has forced the balloons upward, 
that they are supported by the unseen air, and 
then we are confident that there is a way to ex- 
plain all apparent exceptions to the rule, and we 
give prompt assent to the conclusion, and our 
belief is intelligent and firm. 

In deductive reasoning which establishes a 
particular truth from a general, belief plays an 
indispensable part. For instance, — 

No Christian steals, 

This man steals, 

Therefore this man is not a Christian. 
The first requisite is belief in the first prop- 
osition. Without belief we cannot reason. 



1 86 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

There are also different degrees and qualities 
of belief. Historical belief, requiring confidence 
in the reliability and disinterestedness of the 
chronicler, differs from scientific belief that 
rests upon confidence in the facilities, faithful- 
ness, and ability of an advocate, or upon the 
thoroughness and reliability of our own investi- 
gations. Personal belief in the integrity and 
honor of a friend involves confidence in our 
opportunities to know, and discernment in 
estimating his strength and weakness ; which is 
quite distinct from religious belief, which neces- 
sitates devout allegiance to God because of His 
supremacy and beneficence, together with affec- 
tionate reliance upon and confidence in Him. 

Clear discriminations in this direction will 
incline the young to estimate the appeals made 
to them, reducing the liability of being swept 
into credulity on the one side and disbelief on 
the other. 

Childhood is the age of credulity, and the 
temptation is great to intensify this tendency. 
There is never harm in the native play of 
credulity more than in the frolic of a colt, but 
to develop it into superstition is as sinful as it is 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 87 

cruel. To check credulity in early life is liable 
to wreck the native tendency to belief forever 
There is a golden mean to be sought, and while 
youth are still buoyant with hope, they are to be 
taught and practised in restraint, and given the 
proper stimulus of faith. 

Youth above fifteen, — i. <?., when they first 
experience the stern realities of life — become 
doubters, unbelievers, very easily, and need to 
be promptly, wisely, fervently directed in right 
ways. 

As the courts demand that a man who has 
hitherto borne a good reputation shall be con- 
sidered innocent until he be proved guilty, 
so belief is not to be scandalized by doubt until 
special definite experience arrests it and is able 
at least to present an indictment against it. 

The position which some assume, that doubt 
is an inherent virtue, needs to be thoroughly 
ventilated, and its innate viciousness exposed. 
Intelligent belief is a virtue, is restful and 
satisfying; it conserves all mental and moral 
forces, it places the faculties in readiness for 
action. Doubt, so far as it leans to disbelief, is 
a misfortune, is a physical, mental, and moral 



i88 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



disturbance, is unsatisfying, wastes energy, and 
unnerves for all good work. 

" Our doubts are traitors, 
And make us lose the good we oft might win, 
By fearing to attempt." 

No youth should go from the Sunday-school 
without knowing that experience will challenge 
his belief, but that for him to be on the alert 
for opportunities to doubt is to make himself in 
his own mental life what the scandal-monger is 
in society. 

Our own unflinching, intelligent loyalty to 
the truth we. teach is pre-eminently important. 
A judicial habit of mind in weighing and esti- 
mating facts is essential to success in forming our 
own belief, and in moulding the belief of others. 

Verbal expression intensifies belief. A clear 
statement of a truth is of itself mental and emo- 
tional power. No brilliancy of intellectual ef- 
fort is so effective, no fervency of emotion is 
more effective, than a clear, verbal expression of 
a belief. Doubt yields to no human attack more 
readily than to an explicit, luminous statement 
of a belief. Words well arranged in definition 
are like an army drawn up in battle array. The 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 89 

Bible demand for verbal confession of our faith 
is strictly philosophical in its bearing upon life, 
thought, and emotion. " With the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness ; and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation " (Rom. 
10 : 10). 

Thus grouping the Scripture truths, we may 
teach the philosophy of Divine truth ; the aes- 
thetics of Christianity, or how to balance the 
emotional life so that it shall be" aglow with 
sacred fervor without being weak and nerveless ; 
the ethics of Christianity, or how to choose the 
right with fearless steadfastness, without fanati- 
cism. 

Belief is not matured until it embodies itself 
in action. It is the weakest sentimentality that 
talks of believing what is not lived up to. Acts 
performed for the mere pleasure they bring do 
not indicate belief. Acts done with deliberate 
disregard of present consequences, for the sake 
of principle and its future reward, indicate belief. 
Readiness to act should an opportunity present 
itself signifies as much as denned action under 
other conditions. 

The materialization of belief in action, the 



190 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



crystallization of thought in deed, is indispensa- 
ble. It is a philosophic tribute to the wisdom of 
the apostolic assurance that faith without works 
is dead. 

" If faith produce no works, I see, 
That faith is not a living tree. 
Thus faith and works together grow : 
No separate life they e'er can know: 
They 're soul and body, hand and heart ; 
What God hath joined, let no man part." 

The motive of belief or disbelief can be can 
canvassed with profit. An agent who pre- 
sents a book, machine, or mine has a different 
motive from the neighbor who asks you to 
join him in sending a Thanksgiving turkey to 
a family whom adverse circumstances have 
clouded ; the politician appeals to you from a 
different motive from the statesman ; the fanat- 
ical, self-conscious reformer has a different mo- 
tive from the quiet, undemonstrative lover of 
mankind who seeks the greatest good of the 
greatest number with the least social or political 
upheaval ; a credulous specialist in religion, who 
urges belief in some eccentricity of faith, has a 
different motive from him who invites alle- 
giance to the truth of God in its spirit and 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. igi 



power ; the skeptic, who attempts to win you 
to disbelief, differs in motive from the man who 
seeks to bring you into a state of loyalty to a 
personal Saviour, who calls for affectionate 
sacrifice. 

To be skilled in estimating the motives of 
those who would secure our belief or disbelief, 
tends to balance our emotions, and always leads 
to greater confidence in those who, from disin- 
terested motives, appeal for belief in the eternal 
verities. 

The bodily and mental condition is responsi- 
ble for a quickened tendency through transitory 
emotions to doubt, disbelief, despondency, and 
despair, and this needs to be so definitely and 
clearly understood in advance that when these 
physically engendered experiences come they 
will have been robbed of their power to at- 
tach themselves as* habits of mind, prompting 
us, instead of brooding over them, to devote 
ourselves to reinvigorating the system to prevent 
their continuance or reappearance. This is a 
very important consideration. Many excellent 
Christians lose much enjoyment from mistaken 
ideas on this point. 



I92 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

The work of the Sunday-school is to teach 
belief in God and His Word. We are to teach 
belief in the existence of God. The child, in 
all probability, believes this, but there is a 
liability to his having this belief shaken by the 
ruthless assaults of skeptically vicious men. 
It is therefore important that children know 
what reason there is for their belief, aside from 
the fact that they do believe. It is not necessary 
that we elaborate the logical argument for the 
existence of God, but we may wisely call 
attention to what we know of the works of God 
in nature, which indicate a supreme mind as 
conceiving the idea of this universe in all its 
parts and varieties. It is a never-failing source 
of interest, as well as profit, to dwell upon the 
adaptability of every created object to other 
creations. Before aught was created, the whole 
must have been conceived. It' is well to follow 
this by calling attention to what we know of 
nature as indicating the command of force in 
creation, or in realizing that which had been 
planned. It is easy to entertain and delight 
children with the skill required to make anything 
with tools, and show them how much intellect 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 93 

and patience it takes to do well any mechanical 
work of high order. Thus, from what they 
know it is easy to establish a belief, or, rather, 
give a reason for the belief they already have. 
In the same line may be shown the tendency of 
all force to exhaust itself when applied, or the 
impossibility of perpetual motion, and yet the 
power behind all created objects and forces is in- 
exhaustible. Thus we may explain belief in God 
as the Preserver of the universe, as the ever- 
living and ever-present, the all-knowing and all- 
powerful Father and Author of all things. In 
the same way we may explain our belief in God 
from what we know of Him as reflected in our 
own nature. 

We need so to teach belief in the existence of 
God that all tendencies and temptations to 
doubt shall be harmless ; that youth may escape 
the horrors of disbelief, which brings in its 
wake despair and desperation : that they may 
avoid the evils of credulity, superstition, and 
fanaticism ; that they shall have an intelligent 
faith, an affectionate reliance, a devout love, a 
profound peace, a serene hope, and an exhilarat- 
ing joy. 



194 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



An intelligent belief in the Scriptures is 
indispensable; and this requires a judicious use 
of what is known in substantiating what is 
believed. 

One line of facts or class of knowledge may 
be stated thus. Man is capable of performing 
voluntary acts in which he is more or less 
influenced by the supposed approval or disap- 
proval of a Supreme Power. Man clearly believes 
in such a power, and acts with a distinct impres- 
sion that that Being has a law which we keep or 
violate in all moral action. 

If there be a Supreme Being, if He rules, if He 
has a law, and that law is not revealed, how can 
there be accountability ? All admit that it is 
revealed in natural indications ; the Christian 
thinks that natural revelation is insufficient to 
establish moral character. Is there anything 
therein relating to temperance, patience, godli- 
ness, brotherly love, charity, worship, prayer, 
forgiveness, a future state, etc.? 

With human reason unreliable, undisciplined, 
biased, what could be the authority for inter- 
preting nature into a code of moral laws, even 
if they were foreshadowed there ? Is n't it a 



THE PHILOSOTHY OF BELIEF. 



195 



well-nigh universal law that, even with the 
explicit Word of God, men incline to establish 
rules according to their practice, instead of 
practising according to the rules of God's word. 

From nature we do not get all the laws we 
need, and no authority for those we do get. 
The truths we find in nature now, we should 
not have found but for their revelation in Scrip- 
ture, 

The Scriptures teach all that man needs to 
know of God ; of Divine providence ; of duty to 
self, to fellow men, and to God ; of the future 
state, of salvation, worship, prayer, peace, hope, 
and joy. 

We know our need ; we know our inability to 
supply that need in any other way ; we know the 
Bible fully meets every moral need of man, — 
hence we are justified in believing the Scrip- 
tures to be the law of God concerning man's 
duties. 

Another line of facts may be stated thus : It 
is clearly demonstrable that most of the books 
of the Bible were written by the persons who 
claim their authorship; that the books were 
written when they claim to have been ; that 



I96 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

they are substantially the same as when written ; 
that the writers were men who deserve the 
confidence of all ages ; that all the doctrines are 
beneficial ; that the moral tendency is higher 
than that found in any other philosophy; that 
the Scriptures have a marvellous power of diffus- 
ing their truth through all nationalities — no 
barbarous nation being unsusceptible to their 
civilizing, moralizing influence; that they have 
actually made the civilized nations of earth 
what they are for good ; that they have uniformly 
made man purer, more upright, more charitable, 
more holy. 

We know all this, and are justified, because 
of this knowledge, in believing the Scriptures to 
be the Word of God to man. 

In this way we might call attention to what 
we know as the foundation of our belief in the 
omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immu- 
tability, goodness, and holiness of God ; in the 
divinity of Christ ; in the humanity of Christ ; 
in the personality of the Holy Ghost ; in the sin- 
ful state of man ; in the principles of redemption ; 
in the duties of submission, love, and trust in 
God ; in the duty to pray and praise; in the duty 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF BELIEF. 1 97 

to observe the Sabbath ; in the duties of charity, 
justice, and love for our fellow men ; in the 
divine appointment of the church and its sacred 
ordinances and sacraments. 

There is temptation to pause on each of 
these interesting themes and call attention to 
what we know, and the way in which our know- 
ledge culminates in belief. But our aim does 
not warrant it. We have done all that was 
contemplated if we have emphasized with suffi- 
cient clearness the importance of training the 
youth to know when they believe how and why 
they believe so that their belief will not be 
shaken when they meet the experiences of life. 
We hope it may aid to an intelligent, steadfast 
acknowledgment of allegiance to the Divine 
Master, and affectionate reliance upon a personal 
Saviour. 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



" Decide not rashly. The decision made, 
Can never be recalled. The Gods implore not 
Plead not, solicit not : they only offer 
Choice and occasion, which, once being passed, 
Return no more." — Longfellow. 

" Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side." 

— Lowell. 

" Choose you this day whom ye will serve." — Josh. 24 : 15. 
" The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice." 

— George Eliot. 

" Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may 
be. Custom wiil render it easy and agreeable." — Pythagoras. 

" Men must be decided in what they will not do, and then they are 
able to act with vigor in what they ought to do." — Menceirs. 



CHAPTER X. 



ART OF CHOOSING. 

N explicit choice, with all that it involves, 
is one of the highest acts of the human 
mind. Choice is the selection of one 
of two or more lines of thought or activity. It 
is not necessarily voluntary. The will is deliber- 
ately ignored in a large number of our selections 
of a mode of activity. 

The choice may be impulsive, unguided, un- 
conscious, and purposeless. The child's first 
manifestations of activity and power are of this 
character. There is a possibility of this random 
selection's continuing through life. It leads to 
thriftlessness in business, laxity in morals, in- 
constancy in religion. 

In the next higher phase, choice is formed by, 
or responds to, external stimulation. It is the 
result of circumstances and not of conscious 
purpose. Circumstances inevitably affect all 

201 




202 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

minds. They have their legitimate place, and 
should be duly considered in making choice. 
There is no excuse, however, in being their 
servant, much less their slave. Those who have 
not risen above this plane are weak and vacil- 
lating. There is nothing reliable in their antici- 
pations. They have neither a harbor in which 
to anchor, nor a chart by which to sail. It is 
an advance on the spontaneous, random ac- 
tivity, because it has the rudiments of alle- 
giance, with more or less indication of perma- 
nency. 

In a still higher phase, choice is based on the 
imitative tendency of the human mind to act 
without perceptible motive, and simply because 
others do the same thing in the same way. 
Fashions prove its social tyranny. Many of the 
social vicious habits are at first largely a matter 
of imitation. While good sometimes comes 
therefrom, it is a dangerous as well as a weak 
attitude for the human mind to assume in mak- 
ing choice. 

In these three methods of choice, — at ran- 
dom, from circumstances, by imitation, the will 
is neglected, ignored. Much of the intemper- 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



203 



ance, licentiousness, shiftlessness, thriftlessness, 
poverty, and disease of the world comes from 
making no use of the will. There may be a 
species of goodness without it, but there is no 
high type of manhood or womanhood that does 
not utilize the will, that does not enthrone it. 

The mind, from an early age, is active, and 
usually^ acts in one of these unreliable ways 
through life, unless trained by experience or 
instruction to more perfect action through the 
will. 

The will increases in power and skill by 
exercise, and it is to little purpose that we 
appeal to its higher possibilities, until it has 
been educated by discipline. Exercise in these 
lower ranges of activity tends to develop higher 
conditions. There is a weak and vicious senti- 
mentality that would leave the child's habit of reli- 
gious thought alone until he is of age to make 
the supreme choice intelligently. 

It is philosophic art to direct the spontaneous, 
purposeless mental activity into the best chan- 
nels by every legitimate external influence and 
imitative inclination available. Then, when he 
reaches an age or comes into circumstances 



204 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 

where conscious choice is probable, he will have 
established habits of activity that incline him to 
the right. 

We have thus far considered the three 
methods of choice that are practically involun- 
tary. There is no strength of mind, no moral 
safety, so long as there is lacking voluntary 
power, or direct volitional choice. The will 
must be enthroned. It must consciously direct 
the various powers of the mind. Until it thus 
exercises supremacy there is no balance, no 
safety. 

The will is the servant of the intellect, in that, 
at its best estate, it takes its authority from 
reason and judgment. It is the associate of the 
intellect, in that it consults with it in the act 
of deliberation which always precedes a proper 
choice. It is the master ruler of the intellect 
in tKat, when it has done its work as servant 
faithfully, as associate companionably, it is duly 
enthroned, and allowed to direct and dictate 
the object, method, and intensity of thought. 

Similarly it is the servant, companion, and 
master of the emotional nature. The quality 
and quantity of manhood depend largely upon 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



205 



which of these relations the will sustains to the 
intellect and the emotions. 

But beyond that there is no assurance of 
permanency so long as the will has to be always 
on the alert. It must reach a condition in 
which it makes right choice without conscious 
exertion. 

The art of conserving will power is to train 
the volitional phase of our nature to do its work to 
the best advantage with the least consciousness 
of effort. To gain this end, it is necessary, when 
the will assumes the mastery over thought, feel- 
ing, and action, that it do its work methodically. 

It must acquire the skill to deliberate, or 
weigh motives, arguments, and appeals, to select 
different lines of activity, only one of which can 
be adopted. The art of deliberating is most 
important. The consideration and meditation 
which it implies is vital to reliability in choice. 

" Deliberate with thyself : 
Pause, ponder, sift; not eager in the choice, 
Nor jealous of the chosen : fixing, fix; 
Judge before friendship, then confide till death." 

— Young. 



There are times in which no deliberation is 



206 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



needed, when, in short, it is almost a crime to 
hesitate. There are occasions when he who 
hesitates is lost. It is a safe rule to follow, that 
if we incline to do a thing and don't know 
whether we ought, then do it not ; if we incline 
not to do a thing, but think perhaps we ought, 
then do it. 

To decide is to cut off deliberation. We gain 
much by having that decision of character 
which leads us to know when not to deliberate, 
when to cease deliberation. Some principles of 
action are vital in this matter. 

We must avoid all rash decisions, all de- 
cisions under prejudice, in temper, from jealousy 
or envy. When the mind is not in proper 
balance we must not consent to make a de- 
cision. 

" The decision made 
Can never be recalled. The gods implore not, 
Plead not, solicit not ; they only offer 
Choice and occasion, which once being past 
Return no more." 

— Longfellow. 

The way in which we make our decisions is 
specially important, indicating the breadth and 
'depth of our mental powers. There is a weak 
and almost criminal way of allowing our decisions 



ART OF CHOOSIXG. 



207 



to be formed by the influence of signs. Persons 
of immature will power, who have never associ- 
ated as they should the intellect with the will, 
frequently acquire a habit of making most of 
their choices dependent upon some relic of bar- 
barism that tradition has handed down the 
generations. 

The grandmother telling fortunes with the 
tea-grounds did an injury to the young minds 
that she little suspected. The nursery-maid 
who is allowed to discipline the children by 
means of signs leaves a permanent impress of 
evil with the child. 

Impressions are frequently allowed to tyran- 
nize through the decisions. People frequently 
train themselves to consult their impressions 
before they decide. Others make most of their 
decisions from their prejudices. Prejudice is an 
obstacle to all sincerity and wisdom in the 
matter of choice. In proportion to the strength 
of our prejudices is our mental weakness to be 
largely estimated. As we value our reputation 
for candor and good judgment must we escape 
the danger of deciding from prejudice. 

Decision, in its best estate, is prompt, ener- 



208 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



getic, and unbiassed. It is influenced by the 
highest considerations of duty. 

" Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil 
side." — Lowell. 

Determination, or absolute direction to a cer- 
tain end, is decision fixed, established so that it 
will, under ordinary circumstances, adhere to its 
purpose. Many who, in revival excitement, de- 
cide to be on the Lord's side, and from impulse, 
from circumstance, or from imitative tendency, 
choose Christ as their friend, soon relapse into 
an indifferent state, not because they were in- 
sincere, but because their decision did not 
eventuate in determination. 

Emerson said that he only was a well-made 
man who had a good determination. 

Decision affects us in one matter, makes one 
choice, while determination settles causes of ac- 
tion, establishes, in the nature of the case, prin- 
ciples of choice that determine what future 
choices shall be. It takes our decisions out of 
the realm of chance and fickleness. 

Our determination, like everything else in 
mental life, needs its own principles of action. 



ART OF CHOOSING. 20g 

The greater the number of judicious laws it can 
establish for its own guidance, the better. It 
wants to settle upon as many classes of things 
that it will not do under any circumstances, as 
possible. This removes the necessity of any de- 
cision in that class of cases. There is no temp- 
tation when we have fixed upon certain things 
that will, under no condition, be done. In the 
same way we need to settle upon those classes of 
things that we will do without meditation or 
consideration. In short, the secret of success in 
this direction is in reducing to the minimum 
the number of cases in which we shall delib- 
erate. 

This latter phase of determination shades off 
into resolution, which shuts off the possibility of 
further consideration. It indicates a settled 
purpose to decide as we have resolved, regard- 
less of consequences. 

When Paul started for Jerusalem and stopped 
a few days with the disciples at Tyre, and the 
Tyrians did everything in their power to dis- 
suade him from pursuing his way, he was deaf to 
all their entreaties, because of his high resolve. 
Later, he stoped at Caesarea, where one Agabns 



210 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



of Judea, with dramatic effect, took Paul's girdle 
and bound his own hands and feet, and said, 
"Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at 
Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, 
and shall deliver him into the hands of the 
Gentiles." But these things had no effect in 
changing his purpose, for he had resolved, after 
due deliberation, what to do, and nothing there- 
after moved him. 

Resolution always gives courage. To know 
what not to do and what to do settles many 
things, the uncertainty of which makes us cow- 
ards. We rarely falter in any emergency, rarely 
fear anything when we are sure we are right 
and are resolved to conquer. Let two men face 
the same adventure, the one knowing in advance 
that he wants to do it, and is resolved, if possi- 
ble, upon it, and the other undecided whether 
he wants to do it or not ; and it does not take 
long to know which will be successful. 

Longfellow says, in the Masque of Pandora, 
" Resolve, and thou art free." This is true only 
when resolve has its higher, fuller meaning, 
when it is more than mere decision. 

Goethe says, " He who is firm in will moulds 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



211 



the world to himself." There is in this a uni- 
versal truth. By will is here meant that resolu- 
tion which comes from determined, perpetual 
decision, resulting from due deliberation when 
the emotional nature acquiesces. 

The involuntary choices are those decisions 
that are spontaneous or random ; that eventuate 
from circumstances or external influence ; that 
follow the imitative tendency. 

The voluntary choices are those decisions that 
result from deliberation. But there is no safety 
so long as the will is required to keep its grip 
on the choice. The power of voluntary choice 
lies in that maturity of the habit of deciding on 
the lines of principles that we have well estab- 
lished, which makes it certain in advance how 
we shall decide, so that when we face any emer- 
gency that special decision is made in advance. 
Thus our voluntary choices become involun- 
tary, not in the former sense, but in the sense 
that no immediate act of the will is required, 
but we take advantage of previous and more 
deliberate choice of principles of decision and 
action. 

Naturalists group all living things into species, 



212 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



genera, families, orders, classes, kingdoms. 
Every weed and insect, every flower and bird, 
everything that grows, finds its place in some 
one of these species, of which there is an endless 
number, in some genus of which there are much 
fewer, in some family, order, or class, and the 
number in each ascending scale is much less. 
It does not require a fractional part of the time or 
thought to tell in what class a thing is, that it 
does to tell its species. And all the infinite array 
of species are in one of the two kingdoms, animal 
or vegetable, and the most illiterate place objects 
in their proper kingdom without expenditure of 
brain power. 

Theoretically, we might expect scientists to 
begin with the species and then work up the 
scale to the kingdom, but that would be a 
practical impossibility. There is no feasible, no 
scientific way but to begin at the top, deciding 
upon the kingdom, class, order, family, genus, 
and species in due procession. 

There is no other scientific way of making 
choices in the moral, intellectual, or religious 
life. Those moralists who would have us make 
each decision by itself, placing each choice 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



213 



in some species, require a practical impossi- 
bility. 

Our choices are in reality grouped like king- 
doms into classes, orders, families, genera, and 
species, and, like the scientist, we must begin at 
the top and run down the scale. 

The primal choice of every soul is between 
allegiance to God or disloyalty to Him. 

There are but two kingdoms in choice, — the 
kingdom of Heaven, or permanent absence from 
it. Every choice is for one of these two king- 
doms. 

Establish this resolution, firm and inflexible, 
let every decision be made without deliberation 
or meditation, that we will do nothing that can 
by any possibility lessen our chance of gaining 
the Heavenly kingdom, and that we will do 
everything that can by any possibility improve 
our reward in it, and then we have settled the 
vast multitude of questions that would else per- 
plex us. Every question that vexes us grows 
out of a willingness to do all the doubtful things 
we can, and still claim allegiance, and leave 
undone all the duties we can, and still hope for 
a place in the Heavenly kingdom. Whoever 



214 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



takes the higher plane of choice has all these 
problems solved for him. 

Beyond that, however, there are minor 
decisions as to means to be used, methods to be 
adopted, etc., but it is not our purpose to pursue 
this thought further than to show that we want 
that choice of Christ which shall forever establish 
the resolution through deliberation and decision, 
by Which we shall invariably, without conscious 
effort of the will, choose only those courses of 
action, means and methods of activity, which 
shall in the highest sense promote the glory of 
God. 

The motives actuating choice are numerous, 
but they mostly come from desire in some 
form. While the character is the combination 
of all the qualities of mind and heart, it may be 
said to depend largely, if not entirely, upon the 
quality and strength of longing for experiences 
or gratifications. The nature, direction, in- 
tensity, and balance of these longings indicate 
the motive behind, and the power directing our 
actions. 

" Our deeds have travelled with us from afar, 
And what we have been makes us what we are." 



ART OF CHOOSIXG. 



215 



Behind every deed there has been a longing 
gratified, suppressed, or denied. 

A wish is a strong inclination to have some- 
thing that is not near at hand, and may or may 
not be accessible. 

A desire is imperious, commanding, and is 
centred upon something attainable at once. 

To covet is to desire that which another has, or 
which we can only get through another. Covet- 
ousness is a dangerous motive to reign over our 
decisions, and yet it is one to which all youth 
are liable. 

Almost everything looks better when another 
applies it than when viewed in the abstract ; 
as a garment is more attractive when worn by a 
stylish, graceful person than it is in the store 
with a hundred others. Oratory in the abstract 
attracts few, but multitudes covet the art as 
they listen to the eloquence of a living, electri- 
fying orator. Multitudes of people have few 
wishes or desires that are not born of what they 
see in others. 

Our choice is not, cannot be, wise and best 
until we are educated above covetousness. We 
must suppress it, or supplant it with higher 



216 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



wishes and desires. Its evils are many, not the 
least of which is that we lose what we have in 
seeking what others have ; we fail to be what we 
might be by trying in vain to be what another is. 

Desires need to be moderated, toned down, 
put into the traces, while our wishes need to be 
limited, more defined, more tangible. Our de- 
sires contract, our wishes scatter. 

We shall find the Word of God the most 
effective instrumentality in all the range of 
forces with which to suppress covetousness, 
moderate desire, and limit wishes. No other 
book presents such motives, or furnishes such 
material from which to modulate its various 
phases. 

We must educate the mind to be influenced 
by results that are remote in point of time and 
distance. Neglect of this leads to all the physi- 
cal, social, financial vices of the world. If we 
allow children to choose those pleasures that 
gratify the surface senses, that yield the quick- 
est emotional delight, that bring the most speedy 
reward, we may as well understand that base 
appetites will be formed and gratified, social 
vices yielded to, dishonesty and kindred financial 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



21? 



vagaries employed, if temptations present them- 
selves. 

There is no way possible to train the young 
to a proper appreciation of the value of more 
remote rewards and dangers except through the 
Bible. 

The idea of God in his omniscience, of eternity 
in its scope, of holiness in its ideality, of Christ 
in his sacrifice, all make the present seem small 
and unimportant in comparison with these vast 
interests. 

The Commandments, the Sermon on the 
Mount, the Lord's Prayer, the Parables, the 
Psalms, the Prophecies, Epistles, all prompt man 
to take a long, range of vision. It is a great 
benefit to near-sighted people to live on a 
prairie, where their view is always limitless. 

The range of moral vision is extended by 
much meditation upon God, and earnest, persis- 
tent study of His works and Word. 

This phase of desire is personal. There is a 
higher view to take in making choice of activ- 
ity, namely, the need others have of our service, 
the good that will come to others from our 
choice. There is a responsibility involved in 



218 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



our relation to others as germinant in our 
choice, that we cannot afford to forget or 
neglect. % 

The world is threatened by no one phase of 
social life, more than by that which represents 
every man, party, and interest as looking after 
its own affairs. Politics, mercantile life, social 
life are all seriously jeopardized by the too 
general tendency to make our choice dependent 
upon some good that will eventually come to us. 
Scientists, philosophers, philanthropists have 
nothing to offer by way of improving this state 
of things. 

The remedy is in God's Word. Its tone from 
beginning to end emphasizes the value to man 
of making his choice with a view to its effect 
upon others. Our relation to God, to Christ, to 
each other, make it at once a privilege and a duty 
to consider others in estimating the importance 
of each choice. The idea so often taught, that 
we are members one of another, that we ought 
to bear one another's burdens ; the conception of 
Christian brotherhood; the injunction to love 
one another; the reminder to forgive as we hope 
to be forgiven, by the very atmosphere they pro- 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



219 



duce inspire us to choose in every event in life 
with reference to the effect our activity, based 
on that choice, will have on others. 

There is a higher plane than any of these 
upon which we may live, and that is one in 
which all our choices come from a desire to 
obey and please a personal God, whom we fear 
too much not to obey, whom we reverence too 
much not to seek to please, whom we appreciate 
too keenly to neglect, whom we love too ten- 
derly to slight in our estimates of motives. The 
Bible, in its entire tone and tenor, serves to 
bring us into this relation to our Father, Saviour, 
and Comforter. 

The motive to choice, must centre in God, and 
in our personal, affectionate relation to him. 

Another element of choice that is not to be 
overlooked, is the fact that it is the embodiment 
of much in little. It is the concentration of all 
emotions and motives of activity, for a long time 
to come, in one effort of the will. It repre- 
sents infinitely more than it is. As the Claude 
Loraine glass brings a vast landscape in perfect 
proportion and clear outline into one small 
frame, so choice gathers extended consequences 



220 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



into one simple act. Only as this is appreciated, 
and as each decision is made with reference to 
the chain of consequences that naturally follow, 
is there wisdom in choice. 

Special divine enlightenment may come to 
man, — in a mild sense does frequently come, 
— making his decisions more significant. The 
mind, through the higher emotional instincts, 
may be brought to concentrate knowledge of 
personal need, eventual reward, responsibility to 
man, duty and affection to God, with such clear- 
ness and inspiration as to leave no doubt, no 
vein of hesitancy. There may be a peculiarly 
vivid sense of past wrong-doing and present sin- 
fulness. All these mental attitudes into which 
it is possible to be brought by some special ex- 
perience are more or less approximated in con- 
version. 

Perhaps no one instance has been more 
marked or more generally known than that of 
the conversion of Henry F. Durant, Esq. Ex- 
Governor Gaston, of Boston, in what will prob- 
ably stand as the grandest jury argument of his 
life, made this most remarkable allusion to Mr. 
Durant's conversion. After referring to his 



ART OF CHOOSING. 



221 



almost matchless legal ability, he said, in sub- 
stance : " I have not the ability to appreciate 
the experience of Henry F. Durant, but this we 
all know, that about the time his only child died, 
he had a religious experience, so deep, so pro- 
found, so impressive, that he never after prac- 
tised the profession to which he had hitherto 
given his life, in which he had taken unbounded 
pleasure, and won high fame. From the day of 
that experience, Mr. and Mrs. Durant devoted 
their time, their thought, their energy, their 
wealth, to religious, charitable, and educational 
advancement." 

This illustrates the possibilities there are of 
swaying the entire life out of long-established 
intellectual, emotional, and deliberately selected 
ways into entirely distinct and different chan- 
nels, under special divine guidance, through 
the conscience and the emotions. 

Choice at such a moment, under such inspi- 
rations, is not unnatural, is not supernatural, 
but is the embodiment of all the highest human 
possibilities of thought, emotion, and will, stim- 
ulated, enlightened, and empowered by a per- 
sonal God, who seems to touch the human soul 



222 



METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



through direct affiliation. This it is that man 
may experience — that multitudes have expe- 
rienced — in conversion. This choice, supreme, 
permanent, intense, exalts every human attribute, 
and through the Holy Spirit clothes it with a 
power and eternity of purpose never known 
before. 

The soul that has not made such choice has 
missed the grandest experience of life. 



INDEX. 



Abraham, 33. 

Adaptation of life to truth, 27. 

of text to age, 23. 
Addison, quotation, 18. 
Age, analytical, 22, 30. 

inquisitive, 29. 

memory, 23. 

under seven or eight, 29. 

between seven and fifteen, 29. 

above fifteen, 29, 30. 
Aim of Sunday-school, 21. 
Amusements, 148, 150. 
Application of truth, 26. 

falsely made, 60. 
Appreciation of single truths, 48. 

of steps in process, 50. 
Art of Choosing, 201. 

of Remembering, 91. 

of Thinking, 45. 
Art Club of Boston, 52. 
Associative aids, 28. 
Attention, 75. 

abstract, 78. 

adaptation to age, 84. 

application to Bible study, 79. 

automatic, 85. 

change of, 1 11. 

difficulty of, 75. 

expectant, 177. 

external, 77. 

internal, 77. 

involuntary, 75, 85. 

voluntary, 85, 
Authority, parental, 32. 
Awakening interest, 102. 

Bad habits, 110. 
Bailey, quotation, 162. 



Bain, quotation, 130. 
Ball-room, sympathy, 149. 
Beaver, an illustration, 78. 
Bee, an illustration, 21. 
Belief, 167, 181. 

adaptation of, 186. 

certainty of, 164. 

commercial, 166. 

credulity in, 175. 

fanaticism in, 176. 

foundation facts of, 166. 

motives, 190. 

scientific, 166. 

social, 166. 

responsibilities of, 191. 
Benefit of sympathy, 145. 
Bible, how taught, 14. 

in olden days, 15. 

text-book, 13. 

underlying principles, 14. 

what it does for mankind, 13. 
Biography, 29. 
Broken-hearted parents, 121. 
Byron, a quotation, 44. 
Business men as thinkers, 45. 

Carlyle, a quotation, 144. 
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., authority, 
178. 

Certainty in belief, 169.- 
Change of attention, 111. 
Character development, 22. 
Chemists' art, 56. 
Child and mother, 112, 
Children, relation of parents, 37. 

relation to parents, 36. 
Choice, circumstantial, 201. 

deliberative, 205. 



223 



224 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



Choice, decisive, 206. 

generous, 218. 

imitative, 202. 

impulsive, 201. 

involuntary, 201. 

selfish, 218. 

voluntary, 204. 
Choosing, Art of, 201. 
Christian living, requirements, 21. 

science, 132. 
Churchill, a quotation, 144. 
Church service, 151. 
Circumstances and associations, 
28. 

Classification of age, 31. 
Claude Loraine glass, 219. 
Cobbe, Frances Power, quotation, 
173- 

Coleridge, S. T., illustration, 80. 
Comparison of truth, 55. 
Comprehension of responsibili- 
ties, 20. 
Conditions of success, 123. 
Confession, 188. 

Contemporary review, quotation, 

Covetousness, 215. . 
Cranch, quotation, 44. 
Credulity, 175. 
Criticism, effects of, 14. 

not intended, 16. 
Critics, 55. 
Currie, quotation, 74. 
Cyclamen, illustration, 30. 

Decision, 206. 
Deductive reasoning, 63. 
Definition, 51. 

Deformities, righting physical, 107 
Deliberation. 205. 
Denham, quotation, 162. 
Desire, 215. 
Despair, 171. 
Desperation, 172. 
Despondency, 171. 
Determination, 208. 
Development of mind, 20. 
Disbelief, 170. 

Discriminate to note differences^ 1 
what is to be remembered, 102 

Divine guidance, 219. 
will, 21. 



Dorr, Julia C. R., quotation, t8. 
Doubt, 168. 

Drunkards, reformed, 111. 
Durant, H. F., 220. 

Eagle, an illustration, 78. 
Effect of imagination, 122. 
Eliot, George, quotation, 144. 
Elocution teacher, an illustra- 
tion, 131. 
Emerson, quotations, 18, 162. 
Emotions, defined, 131. 

developed, 137. 

excessive, 135. 

influence of, 132. 

influence of word of God 
upon, 140. 

lack of self-control, 133. 

painful, 134. 

pleasurable, 134. 
Emotional sympathy, 147. 
Emphasis in Bible reading, 54. 
Enemies, relation to, 39. 
Erratic Christians, 127. 

emotional natures, 135. 
Estimating consequences, 57. 
Examples of deductive reasoning, 
70. 

Excessive emotional natures, 135. 
Expectancy, 181. 
Expectant attention, 177. 
External attention, 77. 

Faculty born with us, 18. 
Faith, 182. 

Faith and works, 189. 
Fanaticism, 176. 
Feelings, muscular, 131. 

sensations, 131. 
Fish, an illustration, 100. 
Forgetfulness, 93. 
Fortunes without paying debts, 
57- 

Foundation of good thinking, 49. 
Fragrant flowers an illustration, 35 
Friends, 38. 
Froude, quotation, 162. 
Fuller, quotation, 90. 

Gaston, ex-Governor, 220. 
Geography, 28. 
Glorious old days, 15. 



INDEX. 



225 



Goethe, quotation, 211. 
Grouping texts, 30. 

Habits, bad, 107. 

conditions of, 108. 

creates brain power, 109. 

good, 107. 

in early rising, 109. 

in morality, 114. 

in religion, 115. 

Philosophy of, 107. 

relieves the will, 108. 

use of, 108. 
Habitual indifference, 113. 
Hamilton, Sir William, 79. 
Hare, quotation, 144. 
Harmony is power, 146. 
Havergal, quotation, 162. 
Hazel fork, 179. 
Hemans, Mrs., quotation, 144. 
History of Bible, how taught, 28. 
Hope, 182. 

Humming-bird, an illustration, 80. 

Ice-cutting, an illustration, 109. 
Illustrations : 

Beaver, 78. 

Bee, 21. 

Coleridge, S. T., 80. 
Cyclamen, 30. 
Drawing line, 19. 
Eagle, 78. 

Elocution teacher, 131. 
Fish, 35. 

Fragrant flowers, 35. 
Humming-bird, 80. 
Ice-cutting, 109. 
Jasper, Rev. John, 46. 
Leafing of tree, 137. 
Mozart, 147. 

Musical development, 41. 
Musicians, trained, 134. 
Oats on cotton, 59. 
Satchel, 95. 
Silkworm, 27. 
Spider eats double, 58. 
Spider's web, 97. 
Soldiers in step, 145. 
Starting tuns, 19. 
Strawberry, 25. 
Telescope, 84. 
Tempering steel, 169. 



Illustrations (continued). 

Weeds, 35. 
Imagination, develops virtue, 121. 

development of, 124. 

influence of, 121. 

neglect of, 123. 

Use of, 121. 

well trained, 128. 
Immature state of mind, 24. 
Imitative choice, 20. 
Importance of S. S. work, 13. 
Impressions, 207. 
Impulsive choice, 201. 
Individual texts, 23. 
Inductive reasoning, 61. 
Influence of emotions, 132. 

of imagination, 121. 
Ingersoll, 22. 
Internal attention, 77. 
Interesting Bible study, 102. 
Inquisitive age, 29. 
Intellectual sympathy, 146. 
Intemperates reformed, 112. 
International lessons, 14, 15. 
Introduction, 13. 
Involuntary attention, 75. 

choice, 201. 

recollection, 94. 

Jasper, Rev. John, 46. 
Joy, 183. 
Juries, 149. 

Landor, quotations, 44, 74, 90. 
Laws of logic, 65. 
Lawyers' power, 53. 
Leafing of tree an illustration, 137 
Leland, quotation, 162. 
Life fashioned by truth, 27. 
Lived religion away from home, 60 
Longfellow, quotations, 18, 206, 
210. 

Lowell, quotation, 208. 

Memory age, 23. 

a panorama, 90. 
Memorizing a drudgery, 26. 
Meredith, Owen, quotation, 44. 
Mental development, defined, 20. 

principles of, 20. 

too early, 25. 
Methods and principles, 17. 



226 METHODS AND PRINCIPLES. 



Moody, 22. 
Morality, 114. 
Mother's tact, 122. 
Motives of choice, 214. 
Mozart, an illustration, 147. 
Musical development, an illustra- 
tion, 41. 

Music teaching, an illustration, 49. 
Muscular feeling, 131. 

Napoleon, quotation, 120. 
Naturalists, 212. 
Nova! is, quotation, 130. 

Oats on cotton, 59. 
Outline for grouping, 34. 

Painful emotions, 134. 

Parents, relation to children, 36. 

Parental authority, 32. 

Patent Office, 57. 

Paul and the Tyrians, 209. 

Peace, 183. 

Penmanship, teaching, 49. 
Philosophy of Belief, 163. 

of Habit, 107, 

of Sympathy, 145. 
Physical sympathy, 145. 
Physician's success, 53. 
Physicians, untrained, 57. 
Planchette, 180. 
Pleasant emotions, 133. 
Psychology to be popularized, 14. 
Principles of logic, 64. 

Quotations : 

Addison, 18. 
Bailey, 162. 
Bain, 130. 
Byron, 44. 
Carlyle, 144. 
Churchill, 144. 
Cobbe, Frances Power, 173. 
Contemporary Review, 173. 
C ranch, 44. 
Currie, 74. 
Denham, 162. 
. Dorr, Julia C. R., 18. 
Eliot, Geo., 144. 
Emerson, 18, 162. 
Froude, 162. 
Fuller, 90. 



Quotations {continued'). 
Gaston, Ex-Gov., 220. 
Goethe, 211. 

Hamilton, Sir William, 79. 
Hare, 144. 
Havergal, 162. 
Hemans, Mrs., 144. 
Landon, 44, 74, 90. 
Leland, 162. 

Longfellow, 18, 206, 210. 
Lowell, 208. 
Meredith, Owen, 44. 
Napoleon, 120. 
Novalis, [30. 
Rogers, 90. 
Scott, 130. 

Shakespeare, 90, ic6. 
Shelley, 44. 
Sidney, 44. 
Spurgeon, 144. 
Webster, 106, 120. 
Young, 162, 182, 205. 

Recreation, 151. 
Relation to enemies, 39. 
to friends, 38. 
of parents to children, 37. 
to parents, 36. 
Reliance, 181. 
Religion, definition, 115. 
Remembering, Art of, 91. 
Resolution, 209. 
Revision Committee, 25. 
j Rhythmical verses, 27. 
j Rogers, quotation, 90. 
! Ruskin's texts, 27. 

Satchel, an illustration, 95. 
Scholarly men recreant, 123. 
Scott, quotation, 130. 
Scripture References : 

Exodus, xv., xx., — 28. 
Leviticus, xix. 3, — 36. 
Deuteronomy, v. 16; xxvii. 
16,-36. 
vi. 7, 8,-37. 
2 Samuel, i. 7. 27, — 28. 
1 Kings, viii., — 28. 
1 Chronicles, xxix. 18, — 120. 
Psalms, xxiii., xxxii., xc.xci., 
ciii., cxii., cxix., cxxxix., 
— 28. 



INDEX. 



227 



Scripture References (continued). 
Psalms, cxxxvii. 6, — 90. 
Proverbs, ii., Hi., viii., xii., — 
28. 

xxiii. 22, — 36. 

vi. 20, 21 ; xxii. 6, — 37. 

xiii. 18,24 ; xvii. 1 7 ; xviii. 
24 ; xxii. 24 ; xxvii. 6, 
19 ; xxix. 15, 17, — 38. 

xxi. 10, — 39. 

iv. 1, 20; vii. 24, — 74. 
Ecclesiastes, iv. 9, 10, — 38. 

xii. 1 , — 90. 
Isaiah, lviii., — 28. 
Amos, iii. 3, — 38. 
Zachariah, vii. 10, — 120. 
Matthew, v., vi., vii., — 28. 

v. 23, 25, 44,-39. 

vi. 12, — 39. 
xvni. 23-35,-39. 

xxii. 42, — 44. 
Mark, xi. 25, 26, — 39. 
Luke, xviii. 18, 19, — 37. 
John, iv. 9-26; xxi., — 54. 
Acts, xvi. 31, — 162. 

xxvi., — 28. 
Romans, ii. 7, — 106. 

1 Corinthians, xiii., xv., — 28. 

xiii. 11, — 44. 

2 Corinthians, hi. 5, — 44. 
Ephesians, vi. 1, 4, 23, — 37. 
Colossians, iii. 20, 21, — 37. 

iv. 2, — 106. 

Hebrews, vi. 19, — 183. 

James, iv. — 28. 

2 Peter, iii. 18, — 18. 

Revelation, v. 6, — 28. 
Shakespeare, quotations, 90, 106. 
Shelley, quotation' 44. 
Sidney, quotation, 44. 



Signs, 207. 

Silk-worm, an illustration, 27. 
Soldiers in drill and battle, 47. 
Spider eats double, an illustration, 
.58- 

Spider's web, an illustration, 97. 
Spurgeon, quotation, 144. 
Supernatural influence, 178. 
Superstition, 175. 
Strawberry, an illustration, 25. 
Sympathy, Philosophy of, 145. 
Sympathetic teachers, 138. 

Table-tipping, 179. 
Telescope, an illustration, 84. 
Temperance texts, 33. 
Tempering steel, an illustration, 
169. 

Texts germinate thought, 2.6. 
Tendency of pleasant emotions, 

Theatres, 140. 
Thinking, Art of, 45. 
Truth, application of, 26. 

harnessed to real life, 27. 

Unbelief, 170. 

Use of the Imagination, 121. 

Verbal memory, 24. 
Virtues not meritless, 114. 

Webster, quotations, 106, 120. 
Weeds, an illustration, 35. 
Will, 205. 

Will-sympathy, 148. 
Wish, 215. 

Young, quotations, 162, 282, 205. 
Young people, tendency of, 31. 



o1 



021 623 383 9 



